Victor K.Ivanets , ECMOS
Release Date: 2010-08-12
Viktor Ivanets, General Director of Russian Engineering Company ZAO NPVO NGS-orgproecteconomica – ECMOS, has been interviewed by Russiaenergy.com for a Russia Special report for Oil and Gas Financial Journal to discuss the long history of ECMOS, its scope of activities on the vast oil and gas engineering market of Russia, and the company's outlook on its future role in the Russian oil and gas industry.The history of ECMOS, a company specialized in engineering solutions for pipeline construction, dates back to 1967 which saw a lot of new discoveries of oil and gas fields in Russia that required efficient solutions and new construction technologies for rapid development of oil and gas construction in Western Siberia and other regions with rich energy resources. It was then that VNIPKTEKHORGNEFTEGASSTROY, an R&D institute for technology, organization and economy of construction, was created, but it was not before 1973 that it became the head institute for organization and technology of construction in Minneftegazstroy, the Ministry of Construction of Oil and Gas Companies, that was in charge of engineering. The institute had subsidiaries in Ukraine with over 1,000 people. In early 1990ies, when Perestroika started, Minneftegazstroy was liquidated, and it was followed with reorganization of the company in 1991 when it became a Joint Stock Company (ZAO) - ZAO NPVO NGS-orgproecteconomica - and was renamed as ECMOS which stands for Economy-Construction Management-Organization-Science.
After almost 30 years of operation, we had to change our scope of activities: before Perestroika our main customer was the Ministry; after our corporate reorganization we entered the market offering our services. We were lucky to have the necessary experience in engineering and organization of construction so that our services were demanded however we did experience some difficulties in the early 1990ies. Back then, one of our major projects for Mintopenergo (Ministry of Fuel and Energy - Editor’s Notes) and Rosneftegazstroy (the new, Russia-branded successor of Minneftegazstroy – Editor’s Notes) was designing the reconstruction of the oil and gas sector in the Republic of Chechnya, with 21 subcontractors. We were in charge of designing the reconstruction and constructing of new infrastructure: pipelines, distribution networks, plants, refineries. Besides, ECMOS was one of the founders of the Russian-French Caspian Pipeline Consortium and, as the representative of the Russian side, prepared the offers for the onshore sites.
I started my career in the North of Russia as trust manager in a company that had the unique capacity of constructing 1,056 km of pipelines per year and 25,000-30,000 sq m of housing. After I came to ECMOS, I’ve been implementing this experience here.
The development of ECMOS sky-rocketed in the early 1990ies, starring cooperation with governmental agencies and ministries and foreign companies: ECMOS has completed the first stage of an offshore environmental project jointly with Terra Environment, a Norwegian company, under a Norwegian grant. The work was submitted for continuation to the Ministry of Fuel and Energy (renamed later as the Ministry of Energy of Russia – Editor’s Notes). ECMOS has also organized a joint engineering center together with the Ministry of Energy of Russia. I have to say that all the major oil and gas projects in Russia – such as Yamal-Europe pipeline, Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2, Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Blue Stream, Baltic Pipeline System 1 and 2, ESPO, Vankor – involved ECMOS.
In 1989, at the World Energy Congress in Montreal, I got familiar with directional drilling principle for underwater river pipelines. This idea excited me. As a result, since 1994 ECMOS has been working in this sphere. Moreover, four years ago ECMOS started diversification taking on engineering surveys on top of the traditional engineering and geology. Till now, ECMOS has completed about 1,000 km of engineering surveys. Another big achievement accomplished in 1994 was organization of a trade system in Gazprom.
Summing up, one of the priorities in the operation of ECMOS is to calculate the resources necessary for both for the customer and contractor: time, volume, assets, inventory, equipment and logistics.
Some bigger companies have a background of over 40 years of working with the government. How did ECMOS manage to become more competitive in the changed conditions of market economy and gain its share during the transition from the Soviet times to market economy?
This is actually an issue. As you have noticed, all the big companies represent some entity while ECMOS is independent which is at the same time our pride and our burden. Moreover, we always run the risk that a newly created construction company might capitalize on the fact that our work and our business can be customized for the new companies that have money and the administrative resources. Such companies use our experience to ‘train’ and repeat it to organize a similar entity. This motivates us to secure our competitive position and make a step ahead.
Our main resource is knowledge and experience. We need even more human resources, given that today we are given projects that no one else can do in the sector. ECMOS forms a sector on our market. For us, each construction site is unique. The ESPO pipeline exemplifies this: no company in the world had ever constructed in such conditions. ECMOS has participated in the choice of pipelines, development of transport scheme, designing the way construction is organized. Our people are the first to come to the site and define the core elements of the infrastructure. It’s very difficult work. Moreover, the fact that we’re independent makes it even more difficult for us.
ECMOS is expanding the product portfolio and is now also involved in environmental studies and other services for the O&G industry, apart from the major oil and gas projects in Russia… What were the main projects where you participated and what were the main growth drivers?
Our business, unless it’s not diversified, always follows the large investment projects. As CEO of ECMOS, I have to be ahead of the industry and the major projects. I’m expanding the activities of ECMOS to the area of engineering surveys as our activities in geological survey and organization of construction and ecology are no longer enough. Besides, there are a lot of offers to work on the international markets, namely in the Middle East.
For instance, in case of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium project, ECMOS was accompanying the entire construction preparing the technology of organizing construction submitting offers and designing works, and was carrying out all the approvals with the involved authorities. It was the first time when ECMOS designed the construction of a 1,400 mm pipeline. One of our most interesting projects was Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline where we had to collect data along the entire track of the future pipeline and approve the allocation of roads and the housing infrastructure… Mind that now we have to take into account even more things such as ecology and waste disposal. The requirements are very tough as compared to 40 years ago.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the ecological accidents with Sakhalin Energy and British Petroleum make the environmental requirements especially critical for oil and gas companies. How can your services help to avoid new accidents in the environmentally sensitive areas like the Arctic shelf?
Firstly, it’s our professionalisms. Secondly, it’s the compliance with the standards and development of new standards that Russia is taking from the international practice. Thirdly, it’s the quality and risk appraisal, knowledge of the technology, of the geology and ecology of the developed areas. It’s also the human factor, meaning that it’s essential to comply with the procedures to prevent emergencies. During a lot of years Russia has been introducing ISOs and systems of quality management.
As OGFJ is an international publication, we would like to ask the Russian players about how you’re capitalizing on your experience on the international markets such as Middle East, Africa and Europe?
The key point for us is multitasking: for pipelines – we can participate in any stages, from the first feasibility study to the construction.
The rule that the ECMOS had played in the past of the Russian oil and gas industry is clear. When you look towards the future, what role, in your opinion, will ECMOS play in the Russian oil and gas industry?
In Russia the future lies in the area of offshore projects, projects in East Siberia, in the Far East, probably also in construction for deep oil refining facilities. One of the new attractive areas with a lot of potential are the alternative sources of energy: wind energy, associated gas turbines and distribution of power apparel for heat distribution. We’ve just stepped in the era of self-regulation which requires development of new standards. There are a lot of ideas but it’s difficult in terms of choosing professionals. We need proven professionals because University graduates can do design for our projects but organization of construction requires good experts who must be familiar with the construction site and its operation.
| Company: | ECMOS |
| Country: | Russian Federation |