OREANDA-NEWS. The Board of Directors took note of the information about the influence of the Gazprom Innovative Development Program until 2020 on the Company's economic performance indicators and about the efficiency of spending funds allocated for research and development (R&D) activities.

Gazprom is a high-tech company, investing heavily in research and development of unique, often unparalleled in the world, solutions. Once tested, they are actively used in the Company's production activities, making it possible to save material and financial resources, optimize time expenditure and reduce the commissioning and operational costs.

The Company is successfully implementing the Innovative Development Program until 2020. In particular, the 2014 results show that compared to the base year of 2010, specific consumption of fuel and energy for auxiliary process needs decreased by 19.7 per cent and specific greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalent reduced by 17.8 per cent.

Between 2011 and 2014 the economic effect from the use of the results of 15 main R&D activities within the Program exceeded RUB 31 billion.

Gazprom obtains significant results from the implementation of integrated programs developed within the R&D activities. For instance, the costs of development and implementation of energy saving and energy efficiency programs between 2011 and 2014 amounted to RUB 4.6 billion, while savings of fuel and energy resources are estimated at RUB 24.4 billion.

The development of a corporate IP management system is ongoing. The total number of patents increased by nearly one and a half time, reaching 2,131 by the end of 2014 versus 2010. At the same time, the number of patents used in production activities rose by more than two times – to 351, and the economic effect from their use exceeded RUB 3 billion – three and a half times more than in 2010.

Gazprom actively cooperates with domestic companies involved in allied industries for providing innovative products and new-to-the-world technologies. As a result, the Company is almost fully provided with domestically produced large-diameter pipes and gas compressor units. A 16 MW unified gas compressor unit GPA-16U created jointly with the New Technologies of Gas Industry Association is an example of successful cooperation. Two such units are already used by Gazprom. The aggregate economic effect, including savings on operating costs in design, manufacture, installation and operation amounted to RUB 3 billion.

Interaction among Gazprom and higher education institutions is underway. The Company supports the development of new educational programs in the priority areas, as well as the creation of specialized departments in higher education institutions for target-oriented training of specialists in demand. Besides, the scientific potential of higher education institutions is involved to perform R&D activities.

The Management Committee was tasked to continue increasing the economic efficiency of R&D activities.