Issues covered on Day 3 of SPIGF.
Day 3 of St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, started with the tour over the exhibition, presenting projects, prototypes and technologies by Russian and foreign companies. The exposition was attended by Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gazprom; Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Gazprom; and Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Denis Fedorov, CEO, Gazprom Energoholding, presented the gentlemen a system of engine management based on Russian-made elements, as well as basic General Electric motors manufactured in Russia.
Sergey Gustov, Head of Gazprom Gazifikatsiya, explained how digitalization of gas supplies to citizens will enable installation of smart meters at every house, reducing payment arrears.
Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel LLC presented new gas fueling facilities, and these were just few of the projects exhibited.
Viktor Zubkov stated that while gas is the most sustainable, safe and cheap fuel, its price can raise higher than 20 RUB per liter. He also added that in rural districts machines should also be switched to gas. For example, such a system had already been introduced in Tatarstan, which resulted in a major cost saving.
According to Viktor Zubkov, natural gas, including methane and LNG, are the future of the transport industry. “In Russia, we’ve been switching our machines to gas for 8 years already. Our vehicle fleet amounts to 16 thousand units, and 60% have been successfully rearranged to gas. Thus, we save 1 billion Rubles a year on fuel,” explained Mr. Zubkov.
Day 3 of SPIGF features the plenary session NATURAL GAS: NEW CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE GLOBAL ENERGY SECTOR. According to Elena Burmistrova, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Gazprom, the European market suffers from gas deficiency – both the demand and prices for this fuel sky-rocketed. Considering the current market situation, Gazprom increased its gas supplies by 1/3 to Germany, by 2.5 times to Turkey, and by 4 times to Romania, says Mrs. Burmistrova.
At the second plenary session NATURAL GAS AS ENGINE FUEL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN REGIONS, participants considered gas engine fuel market development. According to Nikolay Shulgin, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, in monetary terms, this market’s share in Russia will come to 25 billion Rubles this year, as this is the most rapidly expanding fuel segment.
Along with that, Viktor Zubkov announced that the federal center is still lacking a united entity that would coordinate the dedicated program implementation. Moreover, there are still too few regions in Russia that could obtain grants to promote their switching to gas engine fuel.
However, Nikolay Shulgin attested that the federal center is eager to proceed towards that goal – “We are going to reconsider the program and make it a federal project, extending the list of regions allowed to join the methane fueling network development (today, there are only 27 regions on that list).”
The program of grants distribution for methane fueling stations construction was started in 2019, and in 2019 through 2020 they’ve funded 125 stations of that kind. Moreover, last year, a program was started to switch transport to gas engine fuel that already resulted in rearrangement of 10,000+ vehicles.
Igor Levitin, Aide to President of the Russian Federation, declared that the state is ready to provide new sites for methane fueling stations construction.
Today, the oil and gas sector is indeed the most important driver for Russia’s economy development (including for related sectors) – this postulate has been repeated during SPIGF on many occasions, and it has been verified by the success of Russian engineers. For instance, UEC Perm Engines, one of the major Russian engine manufacturers, presented its latest project specially designed for the fuel and energy sector – 12 to 16 MW gas turbine units based on PD 14 aviation engine. These units comply with Russian and global sustainability requirements thanks to high-performance structural solutions. UEC is making preparations to launch their premier into bulk production. Perm-made devices are expected to be used in gas-pumping units at gas mains and gas turbine power plants.
The sanctions and the pandemic escalated the issues of import substitution in the oil and gas sector. For this mission to succeed, a united eco-system of customers, contractors and suppliers is needed. This task is being solved by an assortment of means, including all the project participants joining the single banking system like the one arranged by Gazprombank. Today, it brings together 100,000+ companies associated with the oil and gas industry, and this number keeps increasing. Advanced banking solutions speed up terms of petroleum projects implementation, reduce inappropriate expenditures, and bring more discipline to construction sites.
Altogether, Day 3 didn’t just embrace serious issues like prospects of the industry and presentations of cutting-edge projects for the oil and gas sector. Participants and visitors of the Forum were also presented practical results of Russian companies’ work – throughout the day, they were entertained by Alex and Promobot, two robots designed and made by a Perm-based company, Promobot. Such robots can be used as an access system, a knowledge data base and an information accumulation device. Their sense of humor and benevolence made them even more popular with the audience. When asked about the Battle of Borodino, Alex replied, “My kin Terminator would just keep silent, but I can recite a poem.” He made it clear that machines aren’t going to fight people – “People are great, and I love making friends with them. Earth-dwellers, they adore robots.”