Gazprom Neft has hosted a Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Forum in St. Petersburg. About 500 scientists and technology developers presented their solutions for the oil and gas industry. The authors of the best ideas received funding from Gazprom Neft and the opportunity to bring their products to the market.
The forum summed up the results of the 11th season of the Energotechnohaba Petersburg Incubator, an early–stage technology startup program. This year, it brought together researchers, scientists, and university engineering teams creating solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence engineering, digitalization of oil refining and petrochemistry, capital construction, and industrial safety.
The best project was the SOREX startup. The team is developing a new type of liquid batteries that can be used to store energy and provide uninterrupted power supply to residential, industrial and infrastructural facilities. The team that is working on it has received funding from Gazprom Neft and the opportunity to continue development together with the company's industrial partners.
The forum hosted a demo day of the Gazprom Neft accelerator "Industries", which develops technological solutions for the oil and gas industry. Students, engineers and young entrepreneurs presented more than 80 ideas to the company's experts. Among them are a modular installation for the safe production of reagents in demand in the oil industry, 3D printing technology for high–precision copies of rock samples for research, and a method for polymer reinforcement of flooded and frozen soils under infrastructure facilities. Following the results of the demo day, the experts selected more than 30 projects for the next stage of the accelerator: the authors of the developments will be able to finalize them with the help of the company's experts and get the opportunity to pilot in real production.
"We systematically support Russian science: it provides competencies and technologies for solving complex business problems. We combine education, science and production: we work with schools, colleges and universities, open laboratories and research centers in them, and conduct educational camps. This is how we solve the tasks of the Decade of Science and Technology in Russia, including attracting talented young people to research."
Ilya Dementyev, Rector of Gazprom Neft Corporate University
"The oil industry is one of the most technologically advanced. To attract young scientists, entrepreneurs, and developers to create new technologies, we have created an ecosystem of open innovation. Its participants gain invaluable experience on real scientific and production sites, and our company offers promising solutions with the ability to scale. Many projects supported by Gazprom Neft have entered the market today and are being used in real production."
Maxim Bardin, Director of the Gazprom Neft Open Innovation Program
"Participation in the Incubator gave us a significant leap in development: we worked out the economics of the solution, estimated the full cost of its use throughout the entire lifecycle, and improved the quality of our idea presentation. It is especially valuable that we had the opportunity to look at the project through the prism of the oil and gas industry, better understand the application scenarios and build a more accurate product strategy. We will use the grant from Gazprom Neft to finalize, test and confirm the key characteristics of the system. Our goal is to create the first working version of the product by the end of the year and make it as competitive as possible."Please note that this press release is based on materials provided by the company. AK&M Information Agency shall not be held liable for its contents, nor for the legal and other consequences of its publication.
Sergey Leonchuk, winner of the Energotechnohaba Petersburg Incubator, founder of the SOREX project
