Digital Passports for Oil and Gas Equipment to Launch in Russia by 2027
By 2027, Russia is set to introduce digital passports for oil and gas equipment, creating a unified electronic record that captures the full lifecycle of industrial assets and determines their eligibility for use in major energy projects.
Equipment Passportization
In its full version, the digital passport will contain regulatory requirements (including GOST, ISO, API and corporate standards), test results and live telemetry data updated in real time. For the industry, the rollout of this document signals a major shift. It strengthens technological sovereignty in the oil and gas sector, reduces reliance on foreign certification systems and tightens quality control across every stage of equipment production and operation, while improving asset performance and utilization. Similar concepts of digital product passports are being discussed in the European Union, but the Russian initiative is explicitly aligned with national quality and certification standards.
The transition from paper documentation to a digital format built on IoT and blockchain architectures will enable automated data collection and ensure data integrity. The digital passport will be integrated with domestic standards and will become a mandatory requirement for equipment approval in strategic energy projects, including offshore development, LNG production and trunk pipeline modernization.
Development of the digital passport is being led by the Interregional Public Organization “Academy of Quality Problems” in cooperation with the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.
Core Principles
The system is designed around Internet of Things technologies for real-time automated data capture and blockchain architectures to guarantee immutability and transparency, strengthening oversight of quality compliance. Sanctions pressure has complicated access to foreign technologies and certification frameworks, making the new system a practical response aimed at ensuring independence for strategically important projects.
The idea of such passportization was first articulated in 2024, when researchers at Novosibirsk State University announced plans to develop a platform for digital passports of materials, with completion targeted for 2026–2027. That initiative focused on building a domestic database of digital material passports to accelerate development, testing and industrial deployment. A digital material passport represents a structured dataset covering all known applications of a material, from ceramics and glass to metals, polymers and composites. Crucially, the presence of such a passport would allow different organizations to use materials with minimal additional testing requirements.
Digital material passports are also expected to play a growing role in the discovery and development of new materials. Standardization enables databases to be analyzed with fewer errors, while analytical algorithms can answer manufacturers’ questions about the quality and properties of prospective purchases. This project highlights the expansion of digital passports beyond finished equipment to include materials, further reinforcing the underlying data infrastructure of the industrial sector.
A Foundational Document
The digital product passport is intended to ensure transparency around a product’s composition, usage potential and recyclability, making it a key instrument of a circular economy. In the European Union, regulations governing digital product passports have already been in force for a year, with the aim of extending product lifecycles and reducing inefficient use of raw materials. The passport is particularly important in assessing the impact of production on people and the environment. Collecting fragmented data manually is often complex and time-consuming, whereas a digital passport centralizes all information within a single digital system.
Mandatory digital product passports are scheduled to be introduced across the EU between 2027 and 2030, underscoring the global nature of this trend. Interest in digital passports across industries is now effectively universal.
