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Rosneft held its Technology Day of Knowledge-Intensive Software in Moscow on May 31.

The high-tech event that brought over some 100-plus representatives from key oil and gas companies, including Gazprom, Novatek, Lukoil, Zarubezhneft, Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft, Transneft, etc., was meant to provide chief technology officers and managers of various IT projects run out of RN-BashNIPIneft, a Rosneft research institute, an opportunity to showcase Rosneft's potential and plans for developing its knowledge-intensive software.

Rosneft became the first Russian company to establish an industry-leading development program for building knowledge-intensive software extending to all key oil and gas production processes.

The company's range of knowledge-intensive software currently includes 23 software products, ten of which have already been taken to the market, where they have been enjoying commercial success.

Rosneft's IT solutions are being used to help deal with production challenges in such areas as reservoir geology, field design, development, and operation while outperforming their foreign-origin competitors when it comes to processing speed, the range of tasks they are designed to perform, their use of state-of-the-art algorithms, and an intuitive easy-to-use interface.

As part of Rosneft's sweeping innovation program, engineers have successfully developed a product called RN-GRID, Eurasia's pioneering industrial-grade hydraulic fracturing (HF) simulator. Thanks to this breakthrough product intended to replace foreign-made solutions, Rosneft has assured its technological self-sufficiency in computer modelling which is a must-have for taking advantage of hydrofracking technologies.

By early 2023, Rosneft had sold over 600 commercial licenses for its software suites, including a contract to sell RN-GRID to China.

Alexander Pashali, Director of the Department of Scientific and Technical Development and Innovations at Rosneft, noted: "The development of a product line of high-tech software for petroleum engineering is not a short-term project, which is simply in line with the current modern trend of mass digitalization. It is not a project primarily focused on making revenue, rather a contribution to the evolution of the oil and gas industry. For us, this is a way to acquire and retain knowledge, at the same time providing the oil and gas industry with crucial engineering software."

Rosneft has announced plans to roll out its other state-of-the-art software suites, such as RN-VEGA and RN-Drilling Calculations, to international markets later this year.

The software system RN-VEGA handles the entire well-testing process, from the preparation of raw data to generating conclusions.

Interpretation of well-test results is known to be a challenging, research-intensive job that must be performed by relying on one's cutting-edge expertise in computer modelling of reservoir systems. The RN-VEGA software suite offers subject-matter experts the ability to perform the entire cycle of well-test analyses, including determining critical reservoir properties such as overburden pressure and permeability.

In addition, well-test analysis allows for more accurate forecasting of well performance following well interventions and for making timely decisions when managing field development operations.

The suite's strengths include the high-performance speed and accuracy of its computing core, as well as support for all types of well tests. The software suite is currently being deployed by 6 of Rosneft's subsidiaries with more than 200 users taking RN-VEGA to perform upwards of 3,000 interpretations per year.

Commenting on the company's developments, Alexei Pestrikov, manager at Rosneft's Innovative Projects Department, noted: "Rosneft is perhaps Russia's leading company in taking real steps toward digital sovereignty. Since 2005, we have been working hard to create software products to replace competing products made abroad. Our software development projects take advantage of agile development methodologies allowing us to respond to the wishes of our users promptly and churn out top-quality products faster. Our IT products have enabled us to substitute almost 80 per cent of foreign-developed software. Our mission is to do our utmost to make software available to all."

All featured software products were developed using the latest advances in technology, including AI-based physical and mathematical modelling and high-performance computing.

To date, Rosneft has sold more than 900 commercial software licenses to oil and gas and oilfield services companies. In addition, Rosneft provides free of charge more than 3,700 academic licenses to the country's 24 top universities for educational use.

In addition to developing and marketing software, the company also provides user training and technical support for its software products. Overall, it conducted more than 100 training workshops between 2022 and 2023.