Gazprom Neft and ICS Holding establish joint digital development venture

The development strategy for the new joint venture is aimed at addressing the challenge of digitally transforming the oil and gas sector through the application of Industry 4.0 technologies. The most promising projects include a support system for making investment decisions for working with oil and gas deposits, solutions for process safety based on computer vision, and a process automation tool for the integrated modelling of production assets.

The Gazprom Neft team will provide industry expertise and trial new technologies on industrial assets, while Nexign, part of ICS Holding, will work on introducing software product development processes, as well as building a team of developers.

There will be around 150 professionals working towards solving the company’s technological challenges in 2020, and the team will expand as the venture grows. In addition, various subsidiaries of ICS Holding in the IT sector will offer their expertise towards ensuring comprehensive support for new developments and their effective integration into the joint venture’s business processes.

Eduard Ashrafyan, CEO of the joint venture, commented: “We are focusing on developing and promoting products targeted at major industrial clients. We will strengthen our cooperation with Russian enterprises and, in the medium term, launch our activity on the international market. The company is already open to bringing strong partners from the industrial community on board.”

Igor Gorkov, CEO of Nexign, commented: “We are confident that Nexign’s strong track record of bringing high-tech products to the global market will be of help in this new venture. For me, this is a very interesting experiment to introduce our knowledge and skills to an industry that is new to us, and I am glad that our company’s many years of expertise in developing complex business support systems is seeing demand outside our traditional market, the telecoms sector.”

Andrey Belevtsev, CDO of Gazprom Neft’s, commented: “Our company is expanding into developing modern digital solutions that are scalable across the whole industry. This new venture will allow us and our partners to implement our solutions, thanks to our unique expertise in the digital transformation of major industrial assets.”

Yulia Shutkina, Vice President of ICS Holding: “In addition to the above solutions, we have also been seeing major businesses take an interest in automating processes such as the verification and filtration of industrial data, virtual flow metering, nodal well analysis, production profiling for 90-day integrated operating plans, and condition monitoring and failure forecasting for electrically driven centrifugal pumps. The product also has great potential for a resource planning product for oil extraction network development projects and general resource requirement monitoring.”

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_{Gazprom Neft is a vertically integrated oil company primarily engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, refining, and the production and sale of petroleum products. Gazprom Neft’s corporate structure encompasses more than 70 exploration and production, refining, and retailing enterprises in Russia, the CIS and worldwide.}

_{Gazprom Neft is one of the world’s Top-10 public companies by proven liquid hydrocarbon reserves, and a global leader in its rapidity in reserves replacement.}

_{The company is a market leader in terms of both financial growth and various efficiency metrics, including its internal rate of return (IRR).}

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_{Intellectual Computer Systems Holding (ICS Holding LLC) is a Russian multidisciplinary IT group whose focus area includes investment, management and consolidation of the technology, media and telecom sector. ICS Holding brings together 25 IT companies, including the holdings Citadel, Forpost, KNS Group (YADRO), Kryptonit and Nexign.}

_{The total number of employees working in companies exceeds 6,000 people, and the geography of business covers all regions of Russia, as well as several countries near and far abroad. Among its priorities are the digital transformation of enterprise companies, information security, data storage systems, big data management and analytics, brings together 23 IT companies, predictive analytics, cryptography and quantum computing, machine learning and artificial neural networks, blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).The mission of the Holding is to facilitate the development of a digital economy in Russia and to support domestic IT talent in various business sectors.}

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_{Nexign, a part of the limited liability company Intellectual Computer Systems Holding (LLC ICS Holding) and a leading Business Support System (BSS) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider, has been delivering pragmatic, value-driven solutions focused on customers’ total cost of ownership since 1992. As communications service providers become digital service providers, Nexign accelerates their transformation through engineering excellence and agile products and services that facilitate revenue-stream diversification. Nexign takes pride in its partner-centric approach to working with customers. For more than 27 years, the company has delivered on its promise of unlocking value in the short term while ensuring customers’ investments are future-proof and support long-term growth.}

_{Headquartered in St Petersburg, Nexign employs 1,800 people in offices throughout Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The company has delivered more than 120 projects across 16 countries and had revenue of $200 million in 2018, an increase of 63 percent over 2017.}