№ 11 (November 2006)
In a resent interview with Oil&Gas Eurasia, Vice-Principal for Research at Moscow's Gubkin Oil&Gas University, commented on issues facing the Russian oil and gas industry.
By Elena Zhuk
A Doctor of Chemistry, Professor Vinokurov had this to say:
Oil&Gas Eurasia: As a person directly involved with oil and gas science, how serious in your opinion is the gap between theory and practice in the Russian oil industry today?
Vladimir Vinokurov: The notion of "oil industry" encompasses a very complex bunch of issues, touching the problems of geology, geophysics, field development, oil transportation, storage, and processing. Resolving these problems demands both theoretical and practical knowledge drawn from math, material science, chemistry, information science, the automation of production processes, ecology, economics, and law. So, providing an overall assessment of the gap between theory and practice is an impossible task.
I think that this gap, traditional for Russia, is caused mostly by the imperfection of "lab-to-plant" technology transfer. As for oil and gas industry, the biggest gaps, I believe, are in such sectors as hydrocarbon production in the Arctic shelf zone, oil recovery enhancement methods, production, transportation and storage of liquefied gas, processing of associated gas, and other processes.
OGE: Speaking about applied research, for example, there is no specialized industry research institutes in the US: reasearch is carried out at universities "on commission" by companies. Maybe, we should do it the "American way" too, and our universities should house applied research?
Vinokurov:The academic community in Russia long ago repudiated the artificial division of science into academic science, university science, and industry science. I think that science as such, and advanced R&D should be domiciled at the IHEs, with their continuous "brain refill." It is essential to use a complex method in order to concentrate financial and intellectual resources. This will help finding solutions to the industry's key issues, starting from "production and refining of ideas" that Russia has always abounded with, and concluding with commercial implementation of complete technological solutions.
OGE: Could a Western style technology park be a viable option for the university?
Vinokurov:I believe that a western model is suitable for us. First, it has been time-tested and proved efficient, for example, at Stanford University, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Oxford. Here is a bit of statistics on technology partks: Oxford - 17,000 students, 300 small hi-tech enterprises, annual income $4 bln. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - 10,000 students; there have been established 4,000 companies that use the Institute's facilities and employ MIT graduates and employees; their annual income - $480 bln. The technology park's budget exceeds MIT's budget. We have to regret that, despite of our country's extensive record of established technology parks, such as Academic Town (Akademgorodok) in Novosibirsk, and parks in Puschino, Troitsk, Obninsk, Chernogolovka, Zelenograd, and Dubna, there is no legal framework for their normal operation. The state should grant some tax benefits and customs duty relief.
Given the demand for innovative infrastructure, in 2004 we opened the "Gubkin University-Technology Park". It consists of eight small scientific and commercial enterprises with the annual turnover exceeding $7 mln. In our estimates, within the next one to two years the amount of such enterprises, and their financial turnover will increase significantly. I think we should create 20-25 such ventures, with each employing five to six young scientists.
OGE: Do international companies recruit your graduates?
Vinokurov:This is a long-standing practice, as Western oil and gas majors organize their presentations at the University. So, there is hardly a company that does not have our graduates among its employees. We receive regular requests to help in recruiting specialists. Requests come from such companies as Schlumberger (it employs about 800 of our graduates), John Brown, and others. Statoil, Norsk Hydro and ConocoPhilips have established grants for a group of our students studying for the master degree, with the target of hiring them in the near future.
However, we do not always approve of our students leaving for the West to work. Russia's oil and gas market is so vast that there are not enough specialists to satisfy its needs. The demand will continue growing, especially given the demographic downturn expected in 2006-2010 due to the birth rate decline.
OGE: Could you tell us about international projects?
In the last few years we have been running a master program in oil economics and management together with the French Oil Institute. Another master programme in hydrocarbon deposits modelling and development planning has been in effect for two years already.
We have five-year agreement with BP that provides significant financial support, enabling the University to participate in the international program "Top-10 World Universities".
We're also planning a major international LNG project. It is a joint project with two Norwegian research institutions: NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), and SINTEF.
OGE: How is students' practical training organized today?
Vinokurov:Despite the fact that today IHEs have less funding for large-scale practical training than in 1970-1980s, our students still have the opportunity to undergo training in many regions of the country.
Twenty to thirty years ago financial support for students' practical training in the country's remote oil and gas provinces was provided entirely out of the state budget. Today we are slowly returning to this practice of "outdoor" training: the students are trained at the fields, in drilling teams, at refineries, at oil and gas pipelines. At the department of oil and gas fields development, 85 percent of students undergo such training; at the department of chemical technology and environment, it is 83 percent, etc. In total, over 700 oil and gas enterprises take on our students as trainees, including Megionneftegaz, Kogalymneftegas, Orenburggazprom, Moskovsky, Ryazansky, Novokuibyshevsky, Kirishsky refineries, and others.
Besides, we try to simulate the environment for practical training at the university. If you walk into the courtyard, you'll see real wells drilled in Moscow soil, and also pipe valves, pipes, i.e. the equipment enabling students to acquire practical experience on the spot. On the university compounds we build pilot units that will allow working in real-life environment. These units are suitable for practical training of students specializing in oil production, and oil and gas storing and transportation.
OGE: In your opinion, what relevant technological problems of the industry can be tackled within the scope of tresearch projects carried out at the university?
Vinokurov:The industry's main problem is how to increase the recoverable share of oil reserves using new production technologies. The oil recovery factor (ORF) is the benchmark to measure the efficiency of utilization of these reserves. In Russia, the average ORF doesn't exceed 28-30 percent. Research results and technology allow increasing the ORF by 7-8 percent. It is enough to say that the encrease only by 1 percent would be equal to discovery of a new oil field with reserves of 100-150 mln tons. Today, the efforts of all University's departm
ents are aimed at increasing the oil recovery factor.
Nevertheless, there are other cutting-edge projects we wish to implement now. These are projects connected with the problem of associated gas processing, extraction of hydrocarbons from gas hydrates, and also with technologies used for hydrocarbons production, storage, and transportation. To increase safety of hydrocarbons transportation, we investigate the process of producing a reversible gel out of hydrocarbons. If there's a hydrocarbons leak, cracks in the vessel or a fracture of the hull, the gels don't spill out into the ocean but dribble slowly. It gives enough time for elimination of the damage. Besides, gels are characterised by a much lower steam volatility, excellent antistatic properties, etc.
Also of interest are some technologies for thinning out heavy oil: one of them uses electromagnetic radiation. Similar technologies are used for increasing the production of light oil products (benzine, kerosene) when processing the residuum of heavy oils.
The problem of biotechnologies use is another topical issue for the oil industry. The university has a biotechnological lab, working on formulas for biopolymers used for drilling and for boosting up oil production. These are environmentally safe materials easily biodegradable after application of an agent. Also, there is a future for new microbiological technologies designed to purify soil and water, and to clean oil spills in arctic climates, at temperatures nearing zero when ordinary bacteria cannot work.
OGE: How do you work together with other research institutes?
Vinokurov:The problem is that quite frequently companies do not formulate their objectives properly. Since there is a research fund, companies simply use this resource. Do they benefit from it? I'm afraid they do not, as this research is very inefficient. Contracts are usually signed for one or two years, while serious work cannot be completed in this period. Technology transfer usually takes between five and eight years. Only out of efforts by scientists from universities, academies, research institutes working as a team on long-term complex research projects, profound research may be expected to evolve. I support the idea of joint work, and of research teams uniting various institutes.
To succeed in resolving complex research tasks, we try to recruit the best scientists from such organizations as the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, the Institute of Organic Chemistry, and the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Science.
We actively cooperate with such industry institutes as VNIIneft, VNIIPIneft, VNII NP. We established branches of our university departments at Gazprom's research centers - VNIIGAZ and Promgaz, where students have practical training in the real-life environment.
We have steady working relations with Stavanger and Trondheim universities (Norway), the French Oil Institute, South Alberta Institute of Technology (Canada), Freiberg Mining Academy and others.
OGE: Is life easy for a young scientist in Moscow?
Vinokurov:Living in Moscow is not easier than in New York or London, that is why we try to support our best postgraduate students, inviting them to participate in contractual work. To many of our postgraduates we pay 5,000-7,000 rubles in addition to their stipend, but even this money frequently is not enough.
I believe that the solution is to create a network of small companies specialized in science-intensive fields of business that would use the university's facilities. Our post-graduate students would work on the university projects, and we would provide research equipment, academic guidance, protection of intellectual property, accounting support and other services that cost a lot in the business world. By way of example, one of our former students entered a post-graduate program and won a two-year grant amounting to 4,500,000 rubles ($168,372) to research a topic "Biodegradation of Oil at Low Temperatures". She founded a small venture, with the university as a co-founder. And we are ready to help promoting such companies and supply them with information about the industry's needs, as well as to let them use our connections and facilities.
OGE: How much can a post-graduate student earn?
Vinokurov:Postgraduate students can earn $500-700 if they actively pursue science. Today, however, it is more an exeption to the general rule. Yet, having your own science-intensive business is none the worse than being an ordinary employee at LUKOIL or at TNK-BP where it's very hard to work your way to the top. And here you're welcome to make money: just do your work - produce chemicals for oil extraction, make equipment or develop software, and no one is getting in your way. On the contrary, the univeristy is interested in attracting more young people to pursue teaching and research careers.
OGE: What measures are taken to protect intellectural property?
Vinokurov:We have a department specialized in protection of intellectual property. Sometimes we have to defend our interests in courts when other companies use our licenses . Like the rest of the world, we're trying not to publish R&D projects containing the elements of know-how. Whenever possible, we protect our innovations with international patents.
The West demonstrates deep interest in our research. I think that our R&D projects would make good sales at the London stock exchange. To promote the research projects, we have built an English-language website recently: www.gubkinrd.com.
OGE: How tough is the admissions competition, what courses are the most popular?
Vinokurov:In fact, it is a competition between entrants who graduated with honours. On the average, the competition has never dropped below four applicants per budget place. The number of entrants with honours in 2006 exceeded 860 persons. Traditionally, the competition is very high at such departments, as geology, oil and gas field development, chemical technology and environment, automation and computer science, economics and management, law.
