1.8. Innovations

PJSC Gazprom’s Innovative Development Program until 2025 (the “Program”) is Gazprom’s tool for the long-term planning and management of innovative activities which is part of the Group-wide strategic planning framework. It has a ten-year planning horizon and covers gas, oil and power generation businesses of the Gazprom Group. To deliver on the technological and organizational priorities of the Program, there are relevant R&D initiatives (plans) in place at PJSC Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Gazprom Energoholding and other subsidiaries and affiliates.

The Program is mainly aimed at improving technological and organizational capabilities of PJSC Gazprom to cement its position as a global energy company and a reliable energy supplier.

The Program prioritizes technological development with a focus on prospecting and exploration, and enhancing development efficiency, including greenfield, offshore, and unconventional resources. The Gazprom Group also monitors and develops technologies for enhancing the efficiency of gas transportation and storage, hydrocarbon processing, LNG production, gas marketing and utilization.

• improving innovation and sustainable development, corporate governance and long-term forecasting, cost and investment management, risk management;
• feasibility modeling;
• improving the pricing systems and tariff policy;
• increasing efficiency in the use of energy, natural, human and financial resources;
• reducing the cost of products and services;
• improving labor efficiency;
• mitigating environmental impacts of operations;
• improving the reliability and safety of production equipment;
• improving organizational capabilities.

Gazprom has an advanced innovation management framework in place. It also has a standing R&D Commission (the “Commission”), which considers whether and how PJSC Gazprom and its subsidiaries should implement R&D projects based on the principles of transparency, objectivity, and independence.

In the reporting year, the Commission once again confirmed its objectivity and commitment to high standards by making comments and suggestions for the revision of R&D applications for more than a half of the works submitted for review.

Gazprom supports the desire of small and medium-sized businesses to develop innovative proposals for their enterprises. PJSC Gazprom has a Single Point of Contact System where businesses can submit their proposals for introduction into the Gazprom Group’s operations. The System’s web portal covers the entire process of submitting an innovative proposal – from the application stage to obtaining the final opinion. In 2022, 115 new applications were registered and 87 expert opinions prepared. PJSC Gazprom's Commission for Introduction of Innovative Products reviewed 24 proposals and recorded 23 items in the Register of Innovative Products, which currently contains 133 items, including 97 proposed by SMEs.

Joint projects with R&D centers (institutes, anchor universities) implemented in 2022 make a significant contribution to improving the efficiency of PJSC Gazprom’s processes.

PJSC Gazprom cooperates with partner universities as part of its Innovative Development Program. PJSC Gazprom and its subsidiaries have an extensive network of anchor and regional partner universities. As of the end of 2022, 13 universities had the status of “anchor” and five more were “special partner universities”.

The fundamental principles of Gazprom’s collaboration with universities are continuity, systemic approach, and innovations. They are included in the approved University Collaboration Concept and the Regulation on Collaboration with Anchor Universities.

An anchor university is entitled to create targeted R&D programs for the benefit of PJSC Gazprom. On the basis of such programs, the university can enter into R&D contracts that cover the topics included in the programs on a non-competitive basis.

PJSC Gazprom engages anchor universities in conducting R&D projects on all core areas of the Company’s technological chain such as software development, and digitalization of production and management functions. Many of them contribute to sustainable development.

In order to assist the anchor universities in formulating R&D programs, the Company carries out consistent work on the review of R&D proposals. In the reporting year, more than 50 joint events were held in the format of technical dialogs with representatives of PJSC Gazprom business units and subsidiaries.

In order to develop inter-university cooperation, a conference of PJSC Gazprom’s anchor universities was held at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University on May 24, 2022.

Chaired by Oleg Aksyutin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Head of Department at PJSC Gazprom, and Andrei Rudskoi, Rector of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, the conference was attended by representatives of 13 of Gazprom's anchor universities with the total number of participants standing at 150.

The event discussed a wide range of issues in the field of exploration, offshore field development, pipe products and materials, low-carbon development based on natural gas, diagnostics of production, transportation and processing facilities.