AI to Boost Efficiency of Russia’s Underground Gas Storage Facilities
Russia’s oil and gas sector is investing heavily in artificial intelligence — and the results are already reshaping how the country manages energy infrastructure.
Russian energy giant Gazprom is rolling out large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence to optimize the operation of underground gas storage facilities (UGS). The initiative marks a major step in the digital transformation of one of the country’s most critical industries, aimed at extending the productive life and efficiency of gas reserves.
At the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, company representatives unveiled a breakthrough: a three-dimensional neural model that performs calculations a million times faster than conventional systems. The model predicts optimal management scenarios for well operations, helping maintain peak daily production throughout the winter season — even amid unpredictable weather fluctuations.
Cutting Costs and Increasing Efficiency
The AI system has already been successfully tested at the Kushchevskoye UGS site and will be deployed across facilities in the upcoming heating season. The project exemplifies Russia’s transition from pilot AI experiments to full-scale industrial implementation — where technology directly improves profitability and operational reliability.
According to industry analytics, Russia’s oil and gas sector now ranks second globally in AI investment, channeling around 2.9 billion rubles (≈$31 million USD) into digital innovation. These efforts have already led to cost reductions of 10–15% and significant gains in productivity across enterprises.
As global energy systems become increasingly complex, Russia’s use of AI in subsurface resource management signals a broader shift — where data-driven intelligence becomes as vital as the energy itself.
