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- Drilling concerns: 15 billion will be allocated for import substitution of technologies in oil production
Drilling concerns: 15 billion will be allocated for import substitution of technologies in oil production
Budget funds in the amount of 15 billion rubles will be allocated for import substitution of technologies in the oil industry. First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak instructed relevant departments to work on this issue for 2026-2028, Izvestia learned. Experts note that assistance is important, but these funds are not enough to completely replace imports. Today, oil companies themselves mainly invest in the industry: in recent years, their investments have reached about 3 trillion rubles annually. How much more money is needed for import substitution is in the Izvestia article.
Where can the funds to support oil production go?
The authorities will expand measures to support import substitution in oil production: First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak instructed the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to work out the allocation of additional budget allocations in the amount of 15 billion rubles for the period 2026-2028. The order should be completed by the end of March, as indicated in the minutes following the meeting of the Coordinating Council for Import Substitution of Oil and Gas Equipment, held back in October 2025. Izvestia has reviewed the document.
The funds will be allocated to the Industrial Development Fund (EDF). Additional government support for the industry can be used, among other things, to develop hydraulic fracturing (FRACKING) technologies necessary to work with hard-to-recover oil reserves (TRIZ) and increase production efficiency, the document says.
Hydraulic fracturing (FRACKING) is the main method of increasing oil production. It is also used when working with hard-to-recover reserves. The essence of the method is that a mixture is pumped into a drilled well at a depth of several kilometers under pressure, which creates additional cracks in very hard rock, increasing the flow of hydrocarbons.
— The government's initiative to allocate additional funds to support import substitution in oil production deserves approval. It is especially important to support the development of domestic TRIZ technologies: readily available reserves are gradually being depleted, and in order to maintain previous production levels and budget revenues from the sale of raw materials, the country has to develop deposits that were previously considered unprofitable," said Dmitry Gusev, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Consumers and Suppliers of Energy Resources Reliable Partner.
However, according to him, the amount of 15 billion rubles is only a "drop in the bucket." For the systematic import substitution of at least TRIZ technologies, annual investments should be at least ten times higher, the expert noted.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Western technologies used in the fuel and energy sector may be unavailable to Russia at any time. He recalled that companies from Western countries, under pressure from their governments, refused to service equipment previously supplied to the Russian Federation.
The share of TRIZ production in the country may increase to 70% by 2050, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak noted in November. At the same time, according to him, the government discussed the introduction of additional benefits for the development of such reserves — it is not only about the extraction itself, but also about the creation of technologies necessary for effective operation in the fields, the official said.
— Speaking from the point of view of the volume of state support for a particular technology, the amount is quite significant. In 2019, the government allocated 10 times less for the development of hydraulic fracturing technologies — 1.5 billion (for a period of three years). There is also information about the expansion of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's support for this technology in the amount of another 3 billion rubles," said Valery Andrianov, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government.
These amounts could have been spent on developing technologies and prototypes, but now, apparently, we are talking about scaling, so government support funds can be used for FRP leasing programs, the expert suggested.
— According to various estimates, Russia needs to have 130-140 of its own hydraulic fracturing fleets (sets of equipment. — Ed.), now about half of the existing installations are from unfriendly countries," the analyst added.
In 2024, it was reported that import substitution of equipment for drilling wells and onshore oil and gas production in 2023-2030 would cost 20 billion rubles. In 2025, the share of domestic equipment in Russian oil and gas amounted to about 70%, and by 2030 the level of at least 90% should be reached, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported.
However, the lion's share of investments in the development of the oil and gas complex is the companies' own funds, Valery Andrianov noted.
— According to available estimates, in the period 2025-2027, the total investments of domestic WINCS (vertically integrated oil companies. — Ed.) will exceed 10 trillion rubles, and a significant part of them will be directed to the modernization of fixed assets through import substitution. Investments in IT solutions in the oil and gas sector alone exceed 160 billion by the end of 2025," the expert said.
Against this background, the 15 billion rubles allocated by the state will be allocated as an insignificant statistical error, but if we are talking about targeted support for one or two specific technologies, then the amount is very impressive, the expert believes.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the offices of Denis Manturov and Alexander Novak, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, as well as to the Federal Reserve and oil companies.
Why it is important to develop TRIZ technologies
Investments by Russian oil companies in 2026 will exceed 3 trillion rubles, according to a review by Kasatkin Consulting (ex-Deloitte team in Russia). In 2024, investments exceeded 2.8 trillion, and in 2025 they amounted to about 3 trillion. The increase in investments was due, among other things, to the development of hard-to-recover reserves, analysts said. Russian oil companies need to actively develop reserves in order to keep up with the pace of increasing OPEC+ oil production, Alexander Dyukov, head of Gazprom Neft, said last year.
Russia plans to reach oil production levels of up to 540 million tons per year, both as part of its energy strategy and as part of cooperation with OPEC+ partners, Pavel Sorokin, first deputy head of the Energy Ministry, said in August. It is important for the country to increase profitable oil reserves — now the total reserves amount to almost 31 billion tons, of which only half is profitable, he stressed. In 2025, the production figure was 512 million tons, said Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.
— Without active development of hard-to-recover reserves, Russia will not be able to maintain oil production of 500 million tons. Despite the accumulated experience of companies in using domestic equipment, there remains a high dependence on imports in terms of onshore hydraulic fracturing equipment, service, borehole equipment and chemicals," said Yuri Stankevich, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy.
In this regard, it is important that the government understands the need for further work with TRIZ, whose share in production has tripled in recent years and will continue to increase, the deputy stressed.
The quality of reserves in the country is declining, but this is typical for the global oil and gas industry, said Alexander Frolov, Deputy Director General of the National Institute of Energy. The share of hard—to-recover reserves is increasing - more and more volumes are involved in production, and this indicator will only grow further. Therefore, it is important for Russia to invest in technologies and equipment that make it possible to work effectively with TRIZ, the specialist concluded.
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