In Almetyevsk, young people looked into the future of the fuel and energy complex

Within the framework of the forum, we tried to solve real problems facing the industry

The hackathon “Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex – 2050” – the main and most striking event of the V International Oil and Gas Youth Forum – ended with an award ceremony for the winners and prize-winners. 240 students, teachers, and young professionals from 18 regions of the country from Kaliningrad to Irkutsk took part in it. This year the event took place for the fifth time. The forum has become a platform for uniting enterprising young people from various fields and regions with the aim of forming and promoting the ideology of technological leadership in the Russian fuel and energy complex.

Motley crew

The goal of the forum is not only to find solutions to business problems that are pressing for Tatneft but also to identify active, enthusiastic young people with sparkling eyes, to discover and attract specialists who will create the technologies of the future. Therefore, it is logical that the venue for the first time was the campus of the Higher School of Petroleum – an advanced scientific and educational center, where all the conditions have been created for the formation of engineers of a new generation through the synergy of academic, industry and university science. Participants had the opportunity to personally evaluate all the advantages of the campus and understand how seriously Tatneft approaches the creation of an educational ecosystem as one of the indispensable components of a sustainable future.

The hackathon program, as always, was intense. Training and master classes, business simulations and tournaments, intellectual games and briefings, where participants developed business thinking, learned to sell their ideas and improved economic competencies.

The very first training was team building, since the teams were formed in such a way that they included people from different enterprises, universities, and cities, with knowledge in different fields and with different levels of competencies. According to one of the forum participants, Muscovite Viktor Bogomolsky, a detailed approach to team formation complements its structure. The fact that there are participants working in the oil and gas industry and those who work in completely different areas allows us to look at the task from a different angle and bring something of our own that is not within the competence of oil workers.

The talented youth tried to apply their acquired skills and practice teamwork during the “View from the Future” foresight session. Here the teams tried to look beyond the horizon and study global and industry trends in the development of the future economy.

Solutions for the future

The main competition platform was the hackathon “Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex – 2050”. Forty teams received 20 cases – real business problems that are most relevant for Tatneft today. They were divided into four thematic tracks: global technological leadership in oil and gas production; global technical leadership in oil and gas refining and petrochemicals; industrial biotechnologies, composite and biodegradable materials; and digital technologies in the oil and gas sector.

The IT direction is included in a separate track for the first time. As one of the forum organizers, head of the corporate culture and youth policy development department at Tatneft, Evgeny Gavrilov, explained, this is a general trend for the entire oil and gas sector.

Business tasks related to a variety of areas: the use of bast crops in the field of heat and power engineering, technologies for processing fiberglass waste, the production of medical polylactide from lactic acid, diagnostics of centrifugal pumps at refinery facilities, identifying sources of air pollution using the example of Almetyevsk and the sanitary protection zone of Nizhnekamsk and much more another.

The culmination of the hackathon was the final defense of the developments – the result of three days of hard work (and sleepless nights). 20 finalist teams presented their ideas to an authoritative expert commission consisting of the company’s top managers, executives, and business specialists.

“We didn’t sleep for two days, but it was worth it because everyone was involved in the process,” says TatITneft specialist Anna Dulskaya. – It was very interesting to prepare a full-fledged project in such a short time, defend it, and reach the finals.

The secret of success is in three Ds

The final event of the hackathon, and indeed the entire youth forum, was “Dialogue on equal terms.” Deputy General Directors of Tatneft Rustam Khalimov, Rinat Shafigullin, Rinat Aflyatunov, Damir Mukhametshin, director of the Tatneft petrochemical complex Azat Bikmurzin, director of the TatNIPIneft Institute Andrey Pimenov, head of the HR Department of PJSC Tatneft shared their impressions of the teams’ work “Andrey Glazkov.

According to Rustam Khalimov, “The main goal of this event is to get to know each other, see new opportunities, and for the enterprise to recognize people who are ready to stay up at night and solve serious problems. I believe that we have achieved this and we have the opportunity to continue this communication in the future”.

The experts answered numerous questions, most of which related to actual production, the development of new areas of activity, the use of new technologies and materials, and the creation of new enterprises. In addition, young people were interested in how to achieve success and become a leaders.

“The path to Russia’s successful innovative development lies in three Ds – trust, long-term perspective, and negotiability,” says one of the forum participants, Andrei Pimenov. – If you work in a team of like-minded people who trust each other, look into the future for at least 10 years, or better yet 30 years, and negotiate with each other, then success will be inevitable for you.

As a result, the awards found their heroes. The winning team was determined in each track. All of them were awarded a certificate for 300 thousand rubles. The most effective forum participants from among the teachers who served as captains received the opportunity to undergo a paid internship at the Tatneft Group.