Oil producer Gazprom Neft is to open a research and development centre at the Skolkovo innovation centre outside Moscow under an agreement signed Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg (left) shakes hands with Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov.
More than 180 million rubles ($2.7 million) will be invested in the next three years in the R&D centre, which will develop software for the automatization of business processes in the energy sector and is expected to open in Skolkovo’s technopark later this year.
“By implementing a range of IT projects to automise key processes in oil extraction and processing, and investing in the development of our own programmes, their implementation and commercialisation, we expect to take a leading position among Russian oil and gas companies in terms of the use of modern technology,” said Alexander Dyukov, CEO of Gazprom Neft.
The new agreement comes a year after the two sides signed a cooperation agreement at last year’s forum. Since then, the energy giant has been looking at introducing technology invented by Skolkovo resident startups, and is currently testing 10 solutions and products developed by Skolkovo companies.
Victor Vekselberg, president of the Skolkovo Foundation, said the agreement for one of Russia’s biggest corporations to open a research centre at Skolkovo was extremely important for the innovations hub.
A Promobot robot greeting visitors to the forum Thursday. Photo: Sk.ru.
“In cooperation with Gazprom Neft, we will solve the pressing task of creating homegrown technologies for the fuel and energy complex,” he said.
“I am certain that by taking part in the research and development carried out by our industrial partner, Skolkovo startups will not only make a significant contribution to solving this task, but will also obtain invaluable experience,” added Vekselberg, who was due to speak at the forum.
The Skolkovo Foundation also announced at the forum on Thursday that it would take part in a project to design medical robots in Russia and produce them in China, with financial backing from the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund.
Skolkovo is being represented at the SPIEF both by several senior Skolkovo managers who are speaking at the event, and by resident startups whose work is on show there.
Guests of the forum are being greeted by a friendly robot made by Promobot, while another startup, Surfancy, has deployed its technology for turning any surface into an interactive touchscreen at the stand of state banking giant Sberbank. Visitors to the Sberbank stand can learn about the history of any of the coins on display by touching the screen over the one that interests them, prompting information to appear on a monitor.
This year’s Economic Forum is taking place from June 16-18 in the St. Petersburg suburb of Shushary.