(read details on page 24) Vesti august 2020 Sakhalin Energy150

Read in this issue The Goal Zero Is Achievable Despite Restrictions The successful completion of the repair work on the entire integrated gas system in 2020 is evidenced by the “first drop” of LNG, which was produced at 5:15 a.m. on 15 July. Read details in interviews of assets managers shutdown 2020...... 2-3 Avatars at the LNG Plant An unusual online visit of the company’s management was held at the Prigorod- noye production complex. Andrey Sharipov shared his impressions of a virtual engagement

digitalisation...... 7 Inspected by Sakhalin Energy Sakhalin Energy conducted an unsched- uled inspection of its oil and oil product tanks under the Sakhalin-2 project, to be 100% sure that they are operated in a safe manner. Gleg Vnukov spoke about the inspection process

industrial safety...... 10 It is not Mere Arithmetic shutdown Developing Russian Content is one of Sakhalin Energy’s key focus areas, including subsea engineering operations A Pit Stop on the Sakhalin-2 Track russian content...... 16 Bear Stories Excellent teamwork demonstrated by our professionals, both those who worked in the field and those who provided engineer- The Sakhalin Oblast is well-known in ing, logistical, procurement and other types of support, undoubt- Russia and far beyond not only for oil, edly played a pivotal role in our success. I would like to specifically gas, salmon and some other special fea- commend the effective work done by the CEO Directorate and the tures, but also for its brown bears. Our General Coordinating Committee Secretariat. Having defined our colleagues have experience of meeting priorities and in view of the importance of the company’s operation- bears in the wild. Read stories about bear al targets, we focused our efforts on reaching one goal – completing encounters and also comments of our critical equipment maintenance scope safely and on schedule. Such expert, Timophei Zvezdov, Head of the traits as being proactive, willingness to make strategic decisions and Environmental Monitoring and Biodiver- be personally responsible for driving the common goal, as well as the sity Conservation Subdivision ability to quickly adapt to the changing reality are in the Sakhalin Energy Team’s DNA. environment...... 20 Through the joint efforts of all GCC Task Forces and our as- set teams we have managed to overcome many challenges related to disease control restrictions, rotational personnel transportation, as About 550 000 well as material procurement and logistics. Maintaining our assets Dear colleagues, virus-free, the company has made a lot of preparations and taken man-hours Our company has completed the Sakhalin-2 Integrated Gas System unprecedented steps to mobilise about 1,500 rotators. Additional- Turnaround. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, this was a ly, taking into account our operational and maintenance plans, we were worked under strenuous test for all our assets and functions. We passed this test have identified key positions by discipline and established a pool of back-up experts from among Russian nationals. A videoconference the 2020 turnaround with flying colours. remote support system was promptly set up at the LNG plant. This campaign Operating under the High Alert mode, the company has complet- system enabled real-time maintenance support from OEM repre- ed a large-scale maintenance campaign at the LUN-A platform, sentatives. Quite a few activities were completed for the first time, read more on pages 2-3 Onshore Processing Facility, Booster Station No. 2 and the LNG not only in Sakhalin-2 project’s history, but also in Russia. plant. (the end is on page 2) CURRENT EVENTS 23 3 6 7 14 June July July July July Trainings on how to save marine mam- The Healthy Generation tournament Special Charity Event “Help Get Ready The “Memory of the Heart” exhibition In the framework of the cooperation mals were provided to volunteers and in Korsakov was supported by Sakhalin for School!” began in Sakhalin Energy, was opened in the Nevelsky Museum with the regional Healthcare Ministry rescuers by the “Boomerang Club” and Energy as part of the Korsakov with the main objective to help children of History and Local Lore. It is the Sakhalin Energy provided 40 oxygen the initiative group for marine mammals’ Sustainable Development in difficult circumstances including those second exhibition project organised concentrators to Sakhalin Regional assistance “Friends of the Ocean” under Partnership Council caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by the Sakhalin Regional Art Museum Hospital the “Sakhalin: Man and the Sea (North)” with the support of Sakhalin Energy project with the support of Sakhalin in honor of the 75th anniversary Energy of the Great Victory 2 august 2020

(the beginning is on page 1) crossing several time zones could be and additional health Maintaining its reputation as a reliable energy supplier Corporate Temporary Accommodation Facilities challenge; thus, being self-quarantined at a TAF allows to Asia-Pacific in this challenging environment, Sakhalin (TAFs) have become a critical link in our operational rotators to accommodate these changes and get ready to Energy has ensured business continuity and safety across chain. As people were self-quarantined there for 14 days, work. all assets. The experience the company has gained in the it was important to make sure that time was put to good Of course, safety had remained one of our topmost pri- process is hard to overestimate and will help us to respond use. We managed to turn this challenge into an advantage orities throughout the campaign. Therefore, every person to any future developments, devise non-conventional by arranging training coursed for TAF residents and giving involved had to act responsibly. Even though quite a few solutions and operate safely and in a rational way, main- them an opportunity to review maintenance plans prior to members of the team participated in a Sakhalin-2 turn- taining our key priorities and strategic growth objectives. the extended “pit stop”. around campaign for the first time, the entire scope was We have resumed LNG production, but still have to As a result, people would get up to speed more quickly performed without a single lost time incident. Thanks to perform maintenance at our PA-A and PA-B oil produc- and save time once they found themselves at our assets. remote asset management and our HSE managers and su- tion platforms. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic remains In addition, we used the two-week period to detect any pervisors who ran onboarding sessions for the green hats, a challenge, the company continues to successfully meet instances of acute respiratory disease early. Consequently, we ensured a great level of personal Goal Zero engage- its objectives and run an efficient business. I am certain the incidence of such disease at our remote assets has been ment. that our highly proficient team is capable of reaching am- close to zero. Another factor to consider is that the Sakha- It should be emphasised that support from our share- bitious goals and meeting the challenges of our times. lin-2 project employs people from virtually every Russian holders, the Russian Party, our buyers and contractors n Sincerely, Roman Dashkov region. Travelling to an area with a different climate and constituted an invaluable contribution to our success. Chief Executive Officer

shutdown 2020 Pit Stop on Sakhalin-2 Track The Goal Zero Is Achievable Despite Restrictions

Alexander Singurov, Deputy Production axial compressor of Train 2, performed a mid-life repair Director, Head of the Prigorodnoye of Frame 7 gas turbines, replaced a C-1351 carbon-based mercury adsorbent, did much work to maintain shut-off Production Complex and control valves and inspect pressure vessels, maintained – We have successfully completed all mechanical opera- electrical equipment and instrumentation, and much more. tions and commissioning as part of the shutdown of Train 2 834 employees from 19 companies (Sakhalin Energy and at the LNG plant. contractors) were engaged in the work. About 330 thousand The successful completion of the repair work on the en- man-hours were worked at the LNG plant in all types of tire integrated gas system in 2020 is evidenced by the “first activities. In total, we opened over 740 flange joints and per- drop” of LNG, which was produced at 5:15 a.m. on 15 July. formed a large number of complex hoisting operations. We have clearly structured our work, taking into account The 2020 shutdown will be remembered for many things, the number of employees involved and completed work or- especially the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pan- ders, and finished the work three days ahead of the approved demic, the switch to rotational shift work, long shifts and schedule. This is the best performance indicator. working days, mandatory two-week self-isolation, limited Despite all external and internal resource constraints, resources, and accumulated fatigue. But I wish this period we did a great deal of work: we upgraded a 2K-1420 would be remembered more for our achievements in the field of occupational and industrial safety. As part of the shutdown, we achieved the Goal Zero in all HSE indicators. The credit for this goes to every employee! We demonstrated our expertise and great commitment, following the motto “One for all and all for one!”. We performed all the work Getting thoroughly ready before the shutdown activities, LNG plant according to our priorities: safety, quality, and only our team. We have passed this test. This is an indisputable then the schedule. We have faced several challenges in the past two fact for me: our team is capable of acting quickly, efficiently years and have consistently proved that we are able and safely, which is the most important thing! I would like to respond to any challenge and work in difficult to express my deep gratitude to everyone who has directly or conditions. This year has brought us another test – indirectly participated in this shutdown, as well as to every- the oil crisis and COVID-19 have made major ad- one who ensured the stable operation of Train 1. I am proud justments to our plans. At the same time, such cri- to state that each operation has been performed safely, pro- The liquefied natural gas plant in Prigorodnoye ses are the best way to test the strength and unity of fessionally, efficiently and ahead of the schedule.

The central control room at the LNG plant

Goal Zero achieved n By Marina Moruga 3 august 2020 shutdown 2020 Pit Stop on Sakhalin-2 Track

Marat Rezyapov, incidents, and even without any unreported cases. We have demonstrated how to work in an absolutely safe way — for Offshore Assets Manager both people and equipment, and the production facility as – We all remember the challenges we had to face at the pre- a whole. paratory stage of the shutdown. In several months, we re- After the shutdown was over, we have been receiving only vised our work plans and adapted them to the current con- positive feedback from all participants in the process. This ditions, new realities of life. We had to abandon some events means high-quality preparation and interaction between all altogether. units of the company. But now it is important for us to make In the dramatically changing environment, our integrat- a general conclusion: to consider what lessons we can learn ed team has done the job in a careful and well-coordinat- ed way. A significant contribution to the preparation and and how we should respond to all future changes in order to implementation of the work was made by the Lunskoye-A have a margin of safety. This would minimise the number of shutdown preparation team, the Engineering and Mainte- adjustments to our initial plans and allow us to manage in- nance Department, the Production Engineering Depart- The participants of technical activities at the LUN-A platform ternal and external resources in such a way as not to depend on any external factors. ment, the Supply Chain Management Department and all High-quality preparation and a positive team spirit were key support services — all of them did a perfect job. The new We have recorded successful completion of the shut- to the successful implementation of the new plan. Most im- scope of work was well thought out. The necessary materials down of the Sakhalin-2 project gas infrastructure and are portantly, we implemented all the measures in a safe and and equipment were delivered on time, this is a critical thing moving forward. This is only the first step for offshore plat- for the offshore platform. Moreover, we prepared all service professional manner. Successful launch of the LUN-A plat- forms, a start to the season. Our “pit stop” is continuing: we contracts, mobilised people with all safety certificates avail- form is the best proof of their high quality. plan to work on the Molikpaq platform in early August, and able and the necessary trainings undergone, and we issued The Goal Zero is our particular achievement during the then proceed to the PA-B platform. I am sure that, with our permits and related documentation for the work. All these shutdown this year. We have demonstrated that it is possible team of professionals, we will perform every operation at the measures were completed by the start of the shutdown. to work without injuries, without leaks, without lost time highest level!

Denis Lutsev, think through each step, and assess potential risks. As a We had extra difficulty in dealing with BS2, because Onshore Assets Manager result, we perform our work not only safely and efficient- it the first time we inspected check valves and a heat ex- – Summing up the results of the shutdown, we have to ly but also ahead of schedule. When people are not under changer of gas air-cooling units. Specialists of the Engi- wonder what the word “planned” means. We have man- pressure of time, they significantly reduce the risk of mis- neering and Maintenance Department were of great help aged to deliver on our plan, but it was significantly differ- takes and incidents that would make them stop, discuss, to us, especially in the flange work quality assurance and ent from our vision at the beginning of the year. Recently, and rethink something. Certainly, the focus on safety is in solving various current issues, both directly at the sta- facing the worldwide effects of the “corona crisis”, many closely associated with related indicators, such as quality, tion and remotely from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. prominent people (including Ole Myklestad, Production scope of work, and schedule. The OPF and BS2 teams successfully, ahead of sched- Director) recall the words of Mike Tyson, a famous box- For the OPF, the shutdown involved alternate re- ule and without harm to the staff’s health and the envi- er. When a reporter asked him about his plan for a fight pairs of two trains with a 12-hour interval and the total ronment, completed all the tasks assigned, thereby en- against Evander Holyfield, Tyson said: “Everybody has duration of about a month. The main operations that suring safe and reliable operation of onshore assets. Such a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. The pan- determined the duration and criticality of the project results were achieved thanks to well-coordinated team- demic has been a huge blow to our plans. Looking back, included replacement and inspection of internal devic- work of all employees engaged and careful supervision I feel proud to work with the onshore assets team and the es of the separator in the low-temperature gas dehydra- over the most critical operations. Moreover, by adjust- entire team of Sakhalin-2 project. I believe that we have tion system, replacement of a tube bundle of the main ing the schedule on the basis of the current situation, we perfectly regrouped and adjusted our actions and short- heat exchanger in the condensate stabilisation system, could reallocate the resources in a timely manner. One term plans, while keeping the focus on the main things: maintenance of high-voltage transformers of the main of the key success factors was that the staff arriving at the Goal Zero, quality and continuous improvement, gas booster compressors, welding repairs in the pro- reliable production. At the same time, we do not forget our production facilities efficiently used their time while duction area, and modifications to pipelines for future about the key to tomorrow’s success: developing the staff staying at Temporary Accommodation Facilities: we pre- integration of the OPF with the compressor station. Be- and working on the future of the project. sides, a standard set of technical measures, including pared and implemented special plans of training and Each shutdown is unique in its own way and does not maintenance of safety critical elements, replacement of preparation for shutdown during self-isolation of both always depend on the duration or scope of the work. Due valves, dismantling and replacing the thermowells, was our permanent employees and temporary workers being to extended rotational shifts, we had to reckon with fa- mobilised for the shutdown. tigue of our workers who were on shift for a long time. in the work scope. We have replaced components of the After the successful start-up, I am proud of the excel- Nevertheless, we completed a critical set of measures to variable-frequency drive control system in the pipeline lent teamwork and grateful for the opportunity to work ensure the reliable operation of the Onshore Processing booster compressor, which can be recognised as one of Facility (OPF) and Booster Station 2 (BS2). We faced real the outstanding achievements of the shutdown. This in this team, contributing to the better production per- challenges and coped with them perfectly. This demon- high-tech operation was performed by the OPF special- formance of Sakhalin Energy. Summing up, we will, as strates an outstanding commitment of our team. ists together with their colleagues from the Engineering usual, learn lessons from both successes and identified As for the pace of the shutdown, we initially agreed and Maintenance Department, without recourse to for- areas for improvement. By following the principles of that we would be moving at the pace of the Goal Zero. eign contractors representing the original manufacturer continuous improvement, we will become even stronger When safety is a priority, we try to take our time, carefully of the equipment. and be ready for new plans and new challenges.

The team of winners – OPF Cycle musketeers at the OPF during the turnaround n By Marina Moruga 4 august 2020 shareholders Five Highlights of the Year Interview with Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, on outcomes of Shareholders Meeting.

– Mr. Miller, the outcomes of Gazprom’s annual replenishment of the resource base. Shareholders Meeting were announced to- Thanks to geological exploration activities, day. Could you please tell us what are your our reserve replacement ratio consistently five highlights from last year? exceeds 1. It has been like this for the past 15 – It was an extremely eventful year for years, and it will remain so in 2020. Yamal Gazprom. If you want me to choose just accounts for the bulk of the new reserves. five highlights, I would certainly start with This year has already seen a discovery of the development of the resource base. We another major field in the region, which we expanded our capacities at the new gas named 75 Years of Victory. production center in Yamal, which is of At present, Gazprom’s investment ac- key importance to our country. In 2019, tivity is primarily focused on Yamal and the we followed up the development of the Bo- East. In Yamal, we continue the pre-de- vanenkovskoye field by starting to develop velopment of the Kharasaveyskoye field: the Kharasaveyskoye field, which is locat- in June, as planned, we started production ed farther north and is unique in terms of drilling there. Recently, we began building a reserves. comprehensive gas treatment unit. We weld- A second highlight was the successful ed and laid one-fifth of the connecting gas operation in the autumn/winter season. Our pipeline to Bovanenkovo. As early as 2023, performance was confident as usual, thanks first gas from the field will be fed into the in large part to underground storage facili- Unified Gas Supply System. These facilities will be among the largest in For instance, China is continuously ramp- ties. In 2019, we brought their deliverability We have a very heavy workload at the the world. Moreover, the Amur GPP will be ing up both gas consumption and gas im- to an all-time record of 843.3 million cubic Kovyktinskoye field in the Irkutsk Region. the biggest global producer of helium, while ports. the complex in Ust-Luga will have the larg- – In general, how would you assess the est output of liquefied natural gas in North- potential for cooperation between Gazprom The annual General Meeting of PAO Gazprom’s shareholders was held by absentee voting on western Europe. And, of course, processing and China? June 26. Shareholders from Russia and several foreign countries took part in it. The Meeting generates added value, which means a siz- – The potential is very high. China’s de- approved the 2019 Annual Report and the annual accounting/financial statements for 2019, able additional monetary flow. mand for gas will grow at a very high pace. adopted a resolution on profit allocation, and agreed on the dividend per share amount being As regards our work in the European Last year, gas consumption in China grew by RUR 15.24. Thus, RUR 360.784 billion will be allocated for dividend distribution (30% of profit market, we continue providing reliable gas almost 10 per cent, thus exceeding 300 bil- payable to the PAO Gazprom shareholders according to International Financial Reporting deliveries to our consumers. We hold our lion cubic meters. In 15 years, the demand Standards). FBK was approved as PAO Gazprom’s auditor for 2020. Besides, the Meeting position as the largest exporter there. The for gas in the country may double. approved the revised Regulations on the Internal Audit Commission along with amendments period the gas market is going through to- Today, Gazprom is supplying gas to to the Articles of Incorporation and the Regulations on the Board of Directors. Following a day is not an easy one. There are difficulties China via the Power of Siberia gas pipe- vote, a new Board of Directors was appointed, its membership being the same as the former for all of its participants, but we have a larg- line. In just a few years, we will increase one. Viktor Zubkov was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Alexey Miller as er reserve to withstand any challenges. Gaz- the supply volume to 38 billion cubic me- its Deputy Chairman. prom has a whole range of significant ad- ters. The supplies via Power of Siberia will vantages, such as a robust resource base, a grow faster than both the imports of LNG

meters per day. As a result, the reliability We continue to build wells. This year, we are of our gas supplies in winter reached a new starting to construct the first CGTU and the The first production well was drilled in the Kharasveiskoye field in the Yamal Gas Production level. section of Power of Siberia stretching from Centre. Well 4051 will be drilled to a depth of 2,540 m. It is the first of eleven wells in cluster Clearly, a third highlight goes to our Kovyktinskoye to the Chayandinskoye field. 5. There are plans to drill 16 wells in 2020. projects in external markets. We enhanced Active work is being done at the Sakhalin The Kharasveiskoye field is the second field after the Bovanenkovskoye base field in the our export potential and launched not one gas production center: this year, two wells Yamal Gas Production Centre created by Gazprom. Gas production will start in 2023 with a but two new export corridors – TurkStream will be hooked up at the Kirinskoye field. design production level from Cenomanian and Aptian deposits of 32 bcm of gas per year. and Power of Siberia. This means even more As our geographic reach keeps expand- Later on, the company will develop deeper Neocomian and Jurassic deposits. The field de- reliable supplies to the West in parallel with ing, the gas we are extracting keeps chang- velopment project covers 108 years of production, with gas to be produced until 2131. the implementation of long-term strategic ing in composition. We are producing agreements with China in the East. Russian gas processing projects are the well-balanced trading portfolio, along with and the gas supplies from Central Asia to Gazprom Group’s deal to attract project fourth highlight. Their significance for Gaz- flexible conditions of supplies and modern China. financing for the construction of the Amur prom has been growing tremendously in re- tools for trading. That is why we step up our I would like to note that Gazprom and cent times. Last year, we passed the halfway Gas Refinery (AGR) worth EUR 11.4 bn re- cooperation activities even at this time; for its Chinese partners are currently negotiat- point in the construction of the Amur Gas ceived the Russian Export Finance Deal of instance, we have just signed a new long- ing an increase of gas supplies via the Power Processing Plant and kicked off the project the Year award during the annual TXF Per- term contract for gas supplies to Greece. of Siberia pipeline by 6 billion cubic meters, in Ust-Luga. Both of those facilities will join fect 10 Export Finance Deals of the Year. Speaking of the financial situation, Gaz- i.e. to 44 billion cubic meters of gas per year, the ranks of the largest facilities in the world. Earlier this year, in May, the transaction prom maintains a high level of stability and as well as the ways to arrange gas supplies I would also like to single out the successful was recognised by Proximo as the 2019 reliability. By the beginning of this year, we from Russia’s Far East, along with the con- project finance deal for the Amur GPP. The Best Deal in Europe, Middle East and Af- accumulated a significant liquidity cushion EUR 11.4 billion transaction is the largest rica in the Eurasian Oil and Gas category. struction of Power of Siberia 2 and the west- deal in the history of Gazprom. This high rating emphasizes the quality of amounting to over USD 22 billion across ern route. Considering all of this, we can say My fifth and, I suppose, last highlight its structure as well as its importance for the Group. Investors show a great deal of that in the foreseeable future the volume of is our financial performance. Gazprom re- the international financial community. trust in us; this year, we placed two issues of pipeline gas exported to China will exceed mains steady in its work. The Company is bonds in US dollars and euro, and two ruble 130 billion cubic meters, which is compa- very durable, as evidenced by our dividends bonds, all of them on very favorable terms. rable with our supply volumes to the tradi- We are going to pay out RUB 360.8 billion, increasingly more multi-component, eth- On Monday, we are going to close one more tional markets. essentially the record-breaking level of last ane-containing gas. This refers to not only deal in US dollars. – As for gas grid expansion in Russian re- year, despite the challenging situation that is the new eastern fields – Chayandinskoye According to all of the “Big Three” in- gions, what is the main item on your agenda? currently facing the global economy at large and Kovyktinskoye – but also the deep- ternational agencies, i.e. S&P, Moody’s and –The main item, of course, is the task and the energy sector in particular. er-lying deposits in the Nadym-Pur-Taz Fitch, Gazprom’s long-term credit ratings set by the President of Russia as regards the – Has this challenging situation affected region of Western Siberia. remain unchanged, whereas the ratings or implementation of the gas supply and gas the Company’s projects in any way? What This is the tangible reason for the sig- the rating outlooks for many foreign oil and grid expansion programs in Russian regions. are the current plans and what is Gazprom nificant enhancement of our processing gas companies have been lowered by at least We have been given totally clear timeframes working on? activities. In the East, we are building the one of those agencies. for the stages and completion: the years – Gazprom has a clearly outlined Amur Gas Processing Plant. In the West, we By the way, a decline in gas demand is 2024 and 2030. goal-setting system. Among our goals is the are constructing the complex in Ust-Luga. not a universal trend for foreign markets. n Source: Gazprom.ru 5 august 2020 Shell Russia head: We will notshareholders be put away by uncertainty – As we mentioned Sakhalin-2 project, do you think that Shell Russia’s Chairman Cederic Cremers has spoken to TASS about oil prices, plan of its expansion could be delayed due to the current crisis? – It is a great question. Our overall ambition to expand Nord Stream 2 and new projects. Sakhalin-2 remains unchanged. I still believe it is the most logical way to expand the LNG capacity on the existing in- – As we know, Shell had to quit from one of them. Are you dustrial site in the Far East. The exact timing and pace will going to halt the rest of the projects? undoubtedly be impacted by what we are seeing in the short – Whilst we had to reduce the pace of our growth ambi- term right now. tions, Russia remains the country of strategic focus for Shell Reality is that these projects have lifetimes of decades, where we pursue growth in both existing and future business- more over than 20-25 years. They tend to be less dependent es, including oil projects together with Gazprom Neft. on short-term cycles and economic impact, but more on the If you are referring to Meretoykhaneftegaz joint venture, longer-term trend including what I have mentioned earlier in then yes, unfortunately, we had to cancel that. The deal was terms of what is our long-term outlook for LNG markets. not completed and had some ongoing uncertainties. With- – You have said Shell believes in the gas market. How this in the challenging external and financial environment, we can affect your interest for new projects in Russia? For exam- could not maintain that uncertainty. That was very sad to ple, Novatek is going to start looking for new partners for its leave that venture. next LNG project in a few years. Could it be interesting for However, answering your question, it does not mean that you? we are stopping other projects, both existing and growth with – I believe that in the future Russia will be one of the few Gazprom Neft. We continue to work strongly on our Salym most competitive supplies sources for LNG demand growth. Petroleum Development joint venture. In March, we closed – Oil producers have faced an unprecedented drop in demand The share of Russian LNG will continue to grow compared a transaction to expand the area of operations of Salym by this year. Do you think, Mr. Cremers, this can accelerate ener- to the past. acquiring a license for Salymsky-2 block from Gazprom gy transition and decarbonisation process and make an oil peak The combination of our strength in the LNG market and Neft. consumption closer? strength of Russia in the gas market remains something we are Moreover, we continue engagements with Gazprom Neft – I think that the crisis and the pandemic of COVID-19 very interested in. We are open to different opportunities in about establishing a new joint venture, which is a frontier clearly put a lot of pressure on our industry – energy de- Russia whether within our existing or new partnerships. exploration prospect in the north-east of the Gydan penin- mand has dropped, and the impact on the economies around – In general, how do you see the future of Shell in Russia, sula. This is a joint venture that will cover two license blocks. the globe is very real. I do think this volatile market will be let us say in ten years? How the Shell’s portfolio will look like? So, the short answer is that we continue our joint projects with us for a while. We do not expect that there will be a – Where we are today, with all the uncertainty it is not and we will continue to build that partnership with Gazprom recovery in oil prices or the demand of the products in the always easy to predict the world ten years ahead, it is even Neft. medium term. However, we do expect that it will recover in difficult to predict 18 months away. However, let me give a – Can we hope that you will make some announcement a longer period. couple of thoughts on this. Therefore, we start from the next soon? Therefore, whilst this crisis will have an impact, we do 18 months. – Yes, if we are able to finalize that in the next weeks or believe that in the slightly longer term those much broader months that probably could be an announcement. We all are Of all the energy companies working in Russia today, Shell trends of energy transition will take over again. It is difficult looking forward to it. actually has the most diversified portfolio. We are active not to say at this stage how much the behavior of consumers will This expected to be an oil-producing venture. Of course, only in LNG and in upstream oil business, but we are also change, will people get back to the same level of commuting still in the exploration phase, with high risk, high investment. very strong in downstream. We are proud that Shell logo is as in the past or not, and therefore will it provide an opportu- However, that expected to be a long-term oil venture, that we present everywhere from Saint Petersburg to Sakhalin, if you nity to accelerate even more the energy transition. I can only will see operating for decades. look across Russia. say that the trend for energy transition was there before the – Anyway, we know Shell mostly as a gas company. This On the downstream side, we are striving to become the crisis and will be there once we come out of it. market is not doing well now too – we see a drop of demand number one customer choice both in premium lubricants and – When you say “medium term”, what exact time period and prices. How long do you think the recovery of gas market in fuels. On gas and LNG, we remain very keen to see how are you talking about? Is that some two-three years or several will take? we could grow together with Russia whether it is expansion months? Does that mean we will not see previous prices around – Yes, you are absolutely right. We have seen that the eco- of Sakhalin-2 or new projects and partnerships. With oil we $60 per barrel during this time period? nomic slowdown reduced both gas and LNG demand across are primarily focusing on the larger Western Siberian basin, – We believe that both hydrocarbon prices and product the globe. This is a large drop compared to the projections starting from Salym and then right up through the North into prices will remain at lower levels than pre-crisis in 2021 and, that we had just a few months ago. What is probably important Gydan. possibly, towards the end of 2021. That’s certainly what we are that it will take a little bit of time for the demand to come back Sometimes I see comments that the current crisis or ener- using as our basis for planning. to the previous projections that we had in terms of demand gy transition or other things could force Shell exit Russia. But – Do you think this will encourage energy companies to growth, but we do see continued growth. This is not about our presence is quite broad in different sectors of the econo- shift investments from oil to gas or renewables? How this will fundamental demand destruction, but this is about a slower my, and we are looking to stay here. Russia will continue to be affect Shell’s investment? pace of growth in the near term. a country of strategic importance for us. – We had to adjust our expenditure, indeed. In our op- Nevertheless, we do not see that the fundamentals of the If I look a little bit further ahead in your 10-year ques- erating expenditures, we are expecting to spend about $3-4 LNG market have changed. We do believe that over the next tion… I am quite convinced that as a company we will not be billion less than we did in 2019, in the next twelve months. It 10 to 20 years an annual average growth rate of 4% per year is put away by the uncertainty in the next ten years. We’ll also be also applies to some difficult decisions for people. For exam- realistic. It will remain the fastest growing sector in the hydro- on the lookout for new opportunities where we might grow. ple, we have also decided that nobody in our global company carbon space. That means that if you look at this annual rate There are things like E-mobility or LNG for road and marine will be getting performance bonuses over this financial year between now and 2040 the market will double in LNG. fuel. In addition, hydrogen is a market that can grow during 2020. On top of that, we are reducing our capital expendi- – However, it was reported that customers might reject up the energy transition and where Russia can play an important ture from $25 billion to $20 billion this year, that is about to 60% of LNG supplies in July. Do you think that Shell and role. 20% reduction. Sakhalin-2 project may face this problem in upcoming months? – As you have mentioned Europe, I cannot skip the question However, the degree that each Shell business is contrib- – We certainly are not seeing in our actual operations that about Nord Stream-2 project. Shell is one of the investors in it. uting to this cut is different. Our upstream business is con- kind of percentage that you are mentioning. It is standard in As we know, the Nord Stream-2 will not receive any exemptions tributing about 45% of that reduction in expenditure; our our industry that long-term contracts always include some from the European Gas Directive. Do you think there is still downstream business – 30%, and our integrated gas including volume flexibility for buyers they exercise from time to time, any possibility to adapt the project to the 3rd Energy Package? LNG and new energies business are contributing only 25% of as the market conditions change. – As you have said, Shell is just a lender to the project. The this saving. Therefore, whilst all of them are reducing, we do Yes, we had some of our LNG customers who had some Nord Stream-2 operating company holds the core discussions see that the relative impact is different and is also related to deferments of specific cargoes just in short term due to full with the German regulator. I can only reiterate that once the the long-term shift in our industry. tanks or full inventories. However, the overall number of such project is completed, it will become critical for the European – Are these reductions applicable to your activities in Rus- cargoes is relatively small, very manageable for us operation- Union in the sense of providing reliable access to natural gas sia? ally and within the normal bandwidths. at very competitive prices. – Yes. It has also impacted our activities in Russia, abso- On the LNG side, we have not had to reduce the produc- – However, as an investor, are you concerned about receiv- lutely. When I talked about our operating expenditure, this tion at all for any of these reasons. We can remarket these ing dividends, benefits from the project due to delay? is something we were driving through across all our activities cargoes relatively effectively in the market. Sakhalin-2 has a – We do not receive dividends. We are a lender, not a and all places. For example, we have had to reduce drilling very privileged position in the Asia Pacific market being very shareholder. But just to be clear, I will not be a good busi- expenditure in our joint ventures in Russia. Also, we had to close to the key markets: Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan. In nessperson if I don’t worry about [the delay]. Again, in our change the pace and aspirations of some of our new ventures addition, it has always been a very strong and reliable part- industry many things that we invest in are long-term and there unfortunately as a result of the current external environment. ner for its customers. It has a very strong reputation in the are long-term risks associated with them. So, the most impor- – Are you talking about your joint ventures with Gazprom market. We continue to be effectively placing many of the tant thing is that the pipeline would be completed, and this is Neft? cargoes that we produce, including additional spot cargoes, more important than the exact timing. – Yes, that is correct. into the market. n Source: https://tass.com/economy/1172749 6 august 2020

digitalisation

work on pressure vessels and other me- Digital Twins chanical equipment. This does not mean that the engagement of experts and sin- How is it possible to ensure high-quality engineering and technical support during a scheduled shutdown gle-discipline specialists will be rejected in the time of a pandemic? By applying custom solutions and digital twins! Head of the Engineering completely. There are technically com- and Maintenance Department Evgeniy Udovenko and Head of the Equipment Monitoring Subdivision plex works related to the setting up and debugging of equipment, in the execution Alexander Krivosheev tell the Vesti about Sakhalin Energy being one of the first companies in Russia of which the participation of certified to have launched a large-scale project to implement real-time remote support systems – specialists is important. Nevertheless, the digital twin workstations. development of digital strategies involves minimising the presence of vendor repre- Evgeniy Udovenko, uled shutdown, we realised that it would features of connection, the need to syn- sentatives wherever possible. Head of the Engineering be very difficult or even totally impossible chronise the work of different expert I want to emphasise that this is just the for our key foreign contractors to partici­ groups and, most importantly, to develop and Maintenance Department first phase. We, engineers, consider our- pate in the work directly. Accordingly, it a shared opinion on various issues. I must selves to be the key players and essentially – These systems allow production facili- was essential to find a solution that would admit that there were a lot of issues to ad- the drivers of ideas related to the technical ties to perform work in such a way that the enable carrying out the planned repairs dress at the preparation stage; now that we other project participants (for example, support of business processes. Today the of critical equipment, even with limited have completed the planned work, I can Engineering and Maintenance Depart- colleagues in the office, representatives of technical support. Therefore, we had to say with confidence that the system has ment is developing a strategy that will act equipment manufacturers or Shell techni- make a quick decision on creating an in- fully justified itself. as a kind of technological accelerator for cal support engineers) can take part in the frastructure that would support all availa- At the moment, we are appraising the the Production Directorate in the next process remotely, getting a complete pic- ble methods of remote expert support. necessity and the possibility of its intro- ture of what is being done and having an In cooperation with experts from the duction at other Sakhalin Energy pro- four to five years. No one can make an opportunity to give advice to facility staff contractor organisations servicing the duction facilities. This is a natural phase accurate epidemiological forecast for the or answer their questions in real time. equipment of the LNG plant, we resolved of the digitalisation process. Such equip- next year. Still, we must ensure the reli- The epidemiological situation has dra- many urgent problems and settled the ment can be used with maximum benefit ability and safety of our production in all matically changed our approach to the fundamental issues of online support. It not only when performing large scopes of possible global development scenarios. organisation of work at production facili­ was necessary to take into account the scheduled repairs, but also during online This means carrying out scheduled shut- ties. Long before the start of the sched- difference in time zones, the technical inspections, working visits, as well as in downs in full scope and in any conditions.

Smart helmets at work Smart helmets allow to make repairs with online engineering support from all over the world locations

Alexander Krivosheev, Secondly, we organised urgent procure- on a helmet. A person wearing such a hel- which device or part the former is talk- Head of the Equipment ment of digital devices in mid-March. It met can control this computer with voice ing about. This feature makes it possible was not difficult to predict that this kind commands and broadcast the video image Monitoring Subdivision to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings of equipment would be in high demand of what he sees himself; at the same time, during complex technical operations. – We had planned to use remote support among large industrial companies, so we he can hear and see the necessary infor- We have already begun experimenting helmets and tablets anyway, but the pan- quickly arranged purchases from several mation from remote participants. For ex- with other types of work, too. We used a demic forced us to expedite the actions and vendors, thus significantly reducing the risk ample, we need to hold a video conference implement the project within two months, similar connection during work on electri- of delayed goods delivery and accelerating with the participation of remote expert cal equipment: an expert of ABB, a con- even before the start of the scheduled re- the arrival of the first items. engineers and an employee at a produc- pairs. tractor organisation, who was on the Lun- From the very beginning, it was as- tion facility who is carrying out technical skoye-A platform, Electrical Engineer who So we worked in two areas simultane- sumed that the LNG Rotating Equipment operations with the compressor and needs was at the LNG lant, and Chief Power En- ously: arranging of wireless communica- Subdivision would be the key user of the to clarify some points, request support, or, gineer who was in the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk tions in enclosed premises and procure- devices, so its specialists got down to think- on the contrary, show his progress or work office, worked together through a virtual ment of necessary equipment. ing through the procedure for using the new details. For this purpose, we create a virtual room (Read about it in the next issue of the First, with the participation of the IT equipment. Soon it was clear that we would room; all conference participants enter it, Vesti newsletter. – Editor’s note.) team, the LNG plant technical and de- need not only helmets and tablets but also using a special password, and begin work- sign teams, we promptly began laying a fi- stationary cameras. We then used them ing online. This is actually an ordinary vid- This system offers tremendous oppor- bre optic transmission line to the machine primarily for constant broadcasting of vid- eo conference except for a single difference tunities. In addition to those described rooms. This is the most important element eo to administrative offices in order to re- – one of the participants is streaming a vid- above, it can be used for training during in arranging wireless communications for ceive timely engineering support. In addi- eo of what he sees, rather than of himself. rare, unique technical operations per- decades to come. In parallel, we worked on tion, we streamed videos to representatives Additionally, helmets are equipped with formed as part of scheduled shutdowns or the creation of a temporary network infra- of the equipment manufacturers (MAN a small screen attached at the carrier’s eye during complex repairs of high educational structure inside the machine rooms, taking Turbo and General Electric) whenever level, which allows him to see the same value. Remote support helmets can be used into account all major aspects and minor it was ne­cessary to show them the overall video conferencing window, but in a shared by experienced employees to live stream details, as well as the urgency of the task. picture of the repair work. mode. Any of the participants can make a the course of their work to a virtual confer- All team members were totally focused on As regards the architecture and the note on the screen, and the field employ- ence room, simultaneously shared by many the assignment, given its high priority. As a working environment of this solution, re- ee will see it. For instance, if an engineer observers. Additionally, stationary cameras result, we were able to connect and test the mote support helmets are devices basically says: “Please look at this device” or “Please can be used to record the whole repair pro- Wi-Fi network two weeks before the shut- used for video conferencing. In fact, this is switch this lever” and marks the indicated cess.” down. a portable computer designed to be placed part in red, the operator will see exactly n By Marina Moruga 7 august 2020 Avatars at the LNG Plant digitalisation Cederic Cremers, Country Chairman Prigorodnoye production complex was attended by Cederic Cremers, Country Chairman Shell Russia, Shell Russia: “Taking into account the fact that the situation in the world Ole Myklestad, Production Director of Sakhalin Energy, and Jane Alcock, Head of HSE, during an unusual is developing very dynamically, the online visit. practice of forming a “smart” pro- duction infrastructure in the company They were welcomed by Alexander Sin- a long time. After the first sessions for (these devices help to track down the allows to effectively unite the virtual gurov, Head of Prigorodnoye PC, and contractors, it became evident that use of transport). These are huge bene- and physical world, making optimal use Andrey Sharipov, Head of HSSE Sub- the system can be used on a perma- fits for the company through fuel saving of time, resources and opportunities of division, wearing digital remote com- nent basis by making it a part of safety and reducing time needed to get trans- the production site. It is important for us that augmented reality technology munication helmets. Andrey shared his induction training for all production port ready. And, unlike a car, a bicycle is an opportunity to make decisions impressions of a virtual meeting with employees. does not require to take a safe driving in real time and, as a result, to create management. We are planning to develop this cen- training, you just need to take the safe- a feedback loop between planning – We communicated with the use tre in the future and install booths to ty briefing. Furthermore, we reduce and production, taking into account of special equipment – RealWear re- operate explosion-proof equipment, load on maintenance staff, daily medi­ the inherent principle of “Prevent and cal check-ups are no longer eliminate, rather than respond to the needed, and a mechanic does consequences”. not have to certify the correct function of transport. Thus, we simplify infrastructure progress with repairs and supports many and cut costs. And it is also other tasks. We have just recently start- additional physical exer- ed to use this equipment (just before the turnaround) but can see a very sat- cise and a contribution to a isfactory result. These tablets and video healthy life style! helmets are used to continuously com- Stopping at the second municate with the manufacturer’s engi- train where scheduled turn- neers who can assess the work progress around was in progress, we in real time and provide recommenda- told our guests in much de- tions for maintenance team. tail of the coal absorbent re- The official visit ended in the admin- placement project and then istrative building by the overview of pro- moved up to the prelimi- duction performance of Prigorodnoye nary and main refrigerant PC in the first six months and the review compressor’s deck. We were of safety and reliability KPIs. Alexander welcomed on site by Alex- Singurov provided the summary of the The participants of the online visit – Cederic Cremers, Ole Myklestad, Jane Alcock ey Soshnikov, Head of LNG challenges the production facility had to mote communication helmet. It is no- overcome during COVID-19 pandem- table that a person wearing this helmet ic and spoke about measures currently Ole Myklestad, Production Director: “The introduction of “smart helmets” is a small is called an “avatar” and many people taken at the LNG plant to prevent the but very important stage in creating a digital platform for the new format of the start joking about making a new episode infection. company. Since the safety of personnel is one of the company’s priorities, it is a great of this famous Hollywood film but about After the main part of the event, vir- opportunity to remotely monitor compliance with safety regulations at work and mon- Sakhalin-2. And even though it was a tual guests noticed high achievements itor the movement of employees in different work areas, which is especially important virtual visit, site “visitors” had a tool- of workers. Cederic Cremers comment- during scheduled maintenance work. This approach is an important step towards box talk. We conducted it in a new tem- ed that reliability and performance in- zero injuries and the digitalization of business processes within the framework of the porary shelter built just in a couple of dicators of the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant Sakhalin-2 project”. months before scheduled turnaround, were among of the best in the world. Ole the so-called Visual Onboarding. Myklestad underlined that the main The central part of the shelter is ta- ken by booths with the recent safety in- formation including Sakhalin Energy’s life saving rules, operations in confined space, use of personal protective equip- ment, and work at height we carry out during scheduled shutdown. All booths imitate real production situations. We have construction scaffolds you can climb and practice fastening techniques and a unit that demonstrates work in confined space with all related risks, and a structure with items which may poten- tially fall from height (DROPS). Fur- thermore, the booths also display heavy lifting special tools and tools to proceed with lifting without using hands, as well Ole Myklestad joined video conference from his office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk The employees ride tricylces at the Prigorodnoye production complex as special ties to fixate manual tools flange connections and possibly equip Rotating Equipment Subdivision. He task of the company, namely safe and and prevent them from falling. After a a separate classroom using 3D learning took us on a virtual tour around the deck reliable operation of all production fa- toolbox talk, participants must practice technologies and a virtual room where and demonstrated current progress in cilities, was maintained at an excellent knowledge at a special booth where they augmented reality can be used to as- gas turbine repair and modifications of level, also thanks to the implementation are asked to identify various risks and in- semble and disassemble equipment. the axial compressor. tervene. Besides, we practised proactive of the smart helmets. As he wrapped it The next item in the agenda was identification of potential threats using Then Konstantin Nazarevich, Grad- up, they would be perfect with similar visit of LNG plant production area. All the Bow-Tie diagramme. Just imagine: uate Rotating Equipment Engineer, gloves for handshaking, the only as- company management answered ques- meeting participants had visited the continued the tour. He demonstrated pect missing during a virtual production tions and helped to identify potential LNG plant before but that time we rode the performance of a tablet that is used tour. Who knows, they might come in threats online. tricylces from the administrative build- for real-time recording of electronic the future! Visual examples yield instanta- ing to the second train. The tricycles data on equipment in the system on site, n Prepared by Marina Moruga, neous results and are remembered for were accessed via electronic key holders create notifications, account for current Marina Semitko 8 august 2020 cover story all TAFs for printing. They were sent to ness and staying at the LNG plant. Lat- users electronically and additionally up- er, when preparing for the turnaround of Lessons of Isolation loaded to the company’s internal website, the plant, they also underwent a 14-day the COVID-19 section. self-isolation before entering the facility “Learn, Learn, Learn!” Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary and Some TAFs found it difficult to access and at the same time conducted courses founder of the first socialist state in the world history, advised the corporate network training materials from their TAFs,” Tatiana adds. and received training materials on USB to his contemporaries and bequeathed to his descendants. The HSE Training Subdivision operat- flash drives (purchased specially for them), ed on a similar principle. “We have agreed as well as through a managed file transfer Even earlier, Anton Chekhov, the writer who is especially close to conduct 15 online courses. Some HSE system (MFT) that allows downloading the courses (for example, the Observation and to the hearts of Sakhalin residents, wrote the same words: resources to personal mobile devices. Intervention) were converted to the online “...We must study, and study, and study”. Wise people do not New Format format,” says Anna Mikhailyuta, Head of give bad advice. Following it, Sakhalin Energy pays special In general, all units of the company re- the Subdivision. attention to staff training. sponsible for the staff training process got In turn, the Professional Learning Sub- used to the new reality in a short time. division provided users with access to the Skillsoft Distance Learning Sys- COVID Does Not Prevent You from tem so that they could take courses Learning! on general business competencies “Previously, much of the educational (350 courses). process took place in a classroom for- mat. However, COVID-19 profoundly Learning the Lessons changed this model and made us signif- As a result, more than 1,500 peo- icantly speed up our efforts to introduce ple were trained in April and May distance education and e-learning, such alone. Self-isolated employees as online courses and webinars,” says readily seized the opportunity to Yakov Pyak, Head of the Professional do something interesting and use- Learning Subdivision. ful. According to Yakov, shift personnel Since self-isolation before en- entering Sakhalin had to spend two weeks tering production facilities has in self-isolation at Temporary Accom- become a standard corporate prac- modation Facilities (TAF). The company Personnel trainings in TAFs’ statistics from April till June 2020 tice, the company will continue to provided them with training opportunities ous organisational units of the company. According to Tatiana Darmeshkina, use the well-established model for training so that they could use this time effectively For example, we created a catalogue of Head of the Industrial Training Centre the staff at TAFs. Moreover, it is now quite and profitably. online and offline training events in key (ITC), they converted 29 ITC training clear that the model will remain valid even It’s a Matter of Technique areas: mandatory, industrial, and profes- courses from classroom to webinar format after the end of the pandemic. This is per- For this purpose, we did a great deal of sional training – 394 courses in total. We in just a week, using such software as Cisco haps one of the best lessons that Sakhalin work in the shortest possible time under prepared a user manual on connection to Jabber and WebEx. “The ITC instructors Energy has learned from the difficult sit- the leadership of the Human Resourc- IT services and applications for training. continued to conduct classroom courses uation! es Directorate and together with vari- Files with the manual were distributed to on weekends, while supporting the busi- n Pavel Ryabchikov Voting on the Amendments From 25 June to 01 July, voting on the new opportunity to vote. We have conducted a quality informa- tion campaign: informed colleagues in advance on the date amendments to the RF Constitution was and time of the event, collected voting applications (which held all over the country. Sakhalin Energy is a mandatory requirement for residents of other regions employees also participated in the historic of Russia), and promptly addressed all emerging issues”, Lyudmila said. event. In Prigorodnoye, voting was held over two days – 28 and 29 June. On the last day staff coming to the plant from The company’s management team kept the organisation 2 week mandatory self-isolation in temporary accommo- of the voting process at the production facilities under dation facilities TAFs joined their colleagues in voting. special control. In total, about 1,400 Sakhalin Energy As for those who are still under observation in the TAFs, employees and contractors holding Russian citizenship they also had an opportunity to express their civic position. Electoral Commission at the OPF performed their civic duty. The personnel of the Onshore Ballots were accepted there on 29 and 30 June. For this, Processing Facility were the first to express their civic po- the company had developed a special voting algorithm that sition – they voted on 21 June; on 22 and 23 June, vot- excluded the possibility of voters contacting with one an- ing was held for the employees of the LUN-A, PA-A and other, and also ensured the sterility of the premises. PA-B offshore oil and gas platforms, and on 23 June – for According to experts, organising the voting process at the staff engaged in the construction of the OPF com- the offshore oil and gas platforms – Piltun-Astokhskoye-A pression station. Nogliki camp was engaged in elections (Molikpaq), Piltun-Astokhskoye-B and Lunskoye-A – on June 24, and on June 29 the voting was completed at was the most difficult part of the work. Prigorodnoye PC. “Bad weather conditions and dense pack ice in Na- According to Lyudmila Khimchenko, a member of bil Bay, which made it completely impossible for vessels Precinct Electoral Commission No. 67 and Deputy Head to navigate, left us no choice – the ballot boxes and the of the Prigorodnoye Production Complex Equipment Re- documents necessary for voting had to be sent by air,” said pair and Maintenance Workshop, the members of the Kor- Vadim Panin, Sakhalin Energy Logistics Manager. sakov District Electoral Commission provided significant According to him, the authorised employees and the assistance in organising the voting. Although the anti-ep- Aircraft Operations Group coped with the important as- idemic measures in force in the company prevented them signment excellently: everything necessary for voting was from coming to the asset in person, the experts gave rec- safely delivered to the platforms despite the thick fogs. ommendations remotely and sent all necessary guidance Moreover, special care was taken to disinfect the cargo – it Voting on the PA-B materials. The voting process on site was arranged by the is a mandatory requirement during the COVID-19 pan- was characterised by the highest attendance in the entire company personnel staff which in accordance with the law demic. history of the platforms. I sincerely thank the election were included in the precinct electoral commission. “Everything went without a hitch, very well-organised, “For me, it was an entirely new experience, but I be- with all safety requirements met. Despite the scheduled commissions, all those who helped in the organisation of lieve that we coped with all tasks successfully. In particular, shutdown and the hectic activity on the platforms, peo- that process, and those who came to express their civic po- the work of the commission was organised in such a way ple found time to express their opinions by voting,” said sition.” as to ensure that both the day and the night shifts had an Marat Rezyapov, Offshore Assets Manager. “This voting n Pavel Ryabchikov 9 august 2020

award corporate culture Gaining You are not Alone Momentum Let’s take as a starting point the Sakhalin The thing is that interference in situations which do not re- Energy’s commitment to comply with high late to us directly is psychologically complicated process. as Journalists ethical standards of doing business and If we are the only witnesses of somebody’s trouble, we can experience fear and doubt, we can run away, but the at the interacting with stakeholders. There is same we would realise that nobody else is there to help, so a practical question involved here: we act against our own fears. If we watch someone’s trou- how to do it? ble together with other people, there could be less fear, but the sense of personal responsibility would be diminished, In social psychology, there is a phenomenon called “the thus creating a collective stupor: everybody sees the trou- bystander effect”. The essence of this is that if you find ble, but everyone expects another to help. yourself in a critical situation, the individuals are less like- In the context of corporate business culture, the by- ly to offer help when there are other people present. Of stander effect manifests itself as a failure to act when ob- course, there are some exceptions, however, in support of serving violations or abuse by colleagues. There are more the bystander effect the news more often tells about a lone hero who nobly saves lives of other people or blames col- complications as compared to a random emergency situ- lective passivity resulted in human casualties. ations involving strangers. It takes much more courage to It seems paradoxical. As compared to an individual, a make a remark or attempt to suppress inappropriate be- group always has more resources and less risks in providing haviour of people with whom one has good relations and A little more than 10 years ago, in June 2010, help. Why the salvage statistics is not in favour of a group? continues to work. This is a critical human factor that rep- the company hold an unusual ceremony: resents the biggest threat and challenge to the culture with high ethical standards. the first winner of the I Am a Journalist Various policies, standards and procedures can be im- contest was awarded a challenge cup. At plemented, but their effectiveness would eventually de- that time, the contest became a new tool for pend on personal choice and actions of each of us. Per- sonal choice cannot be delegated and controlled without employees, which helped them share news, violating fundamental human rights and freedoms, howev- achievements, and outstanding events in their er, we can create an environment and conditions in which you will receive all the necessary support in order to act unit’s activities. It still remains an effective responsibly. method, but on a completely different scale. Slogans and moralism aside, we would like to remind you that Sakhalin Energy has professionals and instru- Over these years, the terms and conditions of the contest ments to support you and your right to display responsible have not changed. For each piece of news, authors get some and active position. points, which are included in the overall team score of their n Internal Audit Subdivision directorate or department. The winner is determined by the total score for publications per round. Over the years, only safety the appearance of the challenge cup changed: initially, it was a metal installation in the form of a scroll and a golden feather, heavy enough so that it had been always difficult for Is my Home my Real Castle? the winners to hold it in their hands. A plastic version that replaced the metal cup was very convenient to use, but it did Remote work is a notion that until recently it was rare in Russia and rather belonged not stand the test of time. Early in the year, we presented a figurine of a worker with a megaphone – a new look for new to the domain of hipsters. However, today it suddenly became a fact of life for the majority records and achievements. Every three months, the cup is of office personnel. passed to the next winner, thereby maintaining the spirit of sportsmanship and open competition. This new remote reality became a source something burnt. It should be admitted that only few got into the game at of inspiration for multiple jokes and I can’t count how philosophical contemplations. It also in- many times I had to first. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to and develop creased the likelihood of home accidents. clean my stove after a taste for the game. In 2010, we received only about 50 ap- Though it is hard to outline any statistics pasta boiled over plications. This year, we have got more than 250 newsbreaks on this topic, our colleagues and friends the pot,” shares her (on average, one piece of news per working day). All of them share their stories, which make us look experience another come from you, employees of the company, who are always from another angle at the famous saying colleague. willing and ready to share useful information and interest- of Sir Edward Coke “My home is my These are just a ing events in their work with their colleagues, and to publish castle”. Are we really safe at home? couple of examples, their stories, as widely as possible, on internal and external Here is one story from one of our which could have communication resources, such as the daily news bulletin, colleagues, “I had one of my the most had a worse ending. serious traumas at home. This happened Once again, they external website, internal website, Vesti corporate newspa- when I was getting ready for my exam at prove that we our- per, and even releasing information to the mass media. the university. I was so deep in the pro- selves are the main Now, the most important thing is that: among the pub- cess of studying the material that I lost source for most lications in April–June 2020, the Production Directorate track of time and spent a couple of hours hazardous situa- won by a large margin (89 points). This is the highest re- in the same position on my chair until I tions. We feel safe at home, and usual for are the integral elements of the success sult in the history of the contest. We are especially pleased could not feel my legs. When I tried to work attention and concentration have a formula which help not only in your ca- that together we have achieved this record in the anniversary get up, my legs were numb. I flopped on reverse side (we either can dive too deep reer but in preventing home accidents. year of the contest. In this round, the most popular topics the floor, twisted my foot and to make it into a task or be way too relaxed). These To make our home a real castle we complete, hit my head against the corner are the moments when pasta is burning, should stick to the Goal Zero at home as highlighted in corporate sources and mass media included of the closet. A fabulous scene for a com- legs are being twisted, electrical devic- well: take care of our own safety and the the 2020 turnaround, the use of high-speed vessels for trans- edy resulted in the long recovery of an- es get broken, gas leaks, knives fall, and safety of those around us, intervene into porting shift personnel to offshore platforms, and the suc- kle, head bump accompanied with black apartments get flooded. the unsafe situation (immediately get rid cessful completion of a major shift rotation in the difficult eye at the exam. Since then, I am very Of course, new reality asks for new of possible risk sources and fix any disor- epidemiological situation. careful about my breaks during home recommendations and new precaution- ders), recognize and control risks (know We promised our readers to announce the top three win- work.” ary formats, which might help avoiding what to do to reduce consequences if ners to support the spirit of the contest. We keep our word: something has happened). “Sometimes, when I work from such situations. However, the only one the Technical Directorate ranks second and the HSE De- home, I throw myself into a task and for- that works “practice make it perfect.” On Sakhalin Energy’s internal web- partment closes the top three. We congratulate the winners get about time, especially when I am on When working from home you must al- site in COVID-19 section you can learn my own. Hunger pushes me to put water ways remember of self-discipline and more about possible home safety hazards and wish everyone success in the next rounds! Please send on the stove for lunch and the next thing self-management. Daily routine, regular and safety recommendations. your new articles to [email protected]. I know is the water boiled-off or it smells breaks, sport exercises, attention – these n Evgenia Diamantidi n Marina Moruga 10 august 2020 industrial safety Inspected by Sakhalin Energy Many of you know about the recent process emergency in Norilsk involving the loss of containment Developed check-lists were submit- of a diesel fuel tank which resulted in the release of more than 21 thousand tonnes of fuel into the ted to the specialists of the Onshore Pro- environment, causing irreversible damage. Consequently, Sakhalin Energy immediately decided to conduct cessing Facility (OPF) and Prigorodnoye Production Complex since these facilities an unscheduled inspection of its oil and oil product tanks under the Sakhalin-2 project, to be 100% sure are involved in the operation of large oil that they are operated in a safe manner. Gleb Vnukov, Head of Industrial Safety Subdivision, spoke about and oil products tanks. As an example, the inspection progress. the volume of two tanks at the Oil Export Terminal is 200,000 m3. This is enough to The company operates hazardous produc- perform annual scheduled inspections of Check-lists were developed for all fill 80 Olympic-size swimming pools. tion facilities (HPF) subject to ongoing HPFs and related units, sites, areas and operations at the facilities (e.g., drilling Onsite specialists have clearly and reg- operations, pressure equipment, hoisting multi-level production control aimed at technical devices, check documentation ularly handled all items based on check- equipment, main pipelines, etc.) to facili- ensuring facility safety, emergency pre- and staff to make sure they meet the re- lists, issued tank inspection reports when tate scheduled inspections. vention and readiness to respond in case quirements established by Russian indus- they received an official request from the of an emergency. Company specialists trial safety laws. In order to implement an unsched- uled inspection decision, the company Sakhalin Rostechnadzor Department to has urgently developed special check-lists conduct unscheduled inspections of the aimed at fulfilling the task. They includ- tanks. Again, Sakhalin Energy’s profes- ed about 350 Russian legislative require- sional team were ahead of the curve! ments to support safe operation of tanks By the time they received Rostechnad- and are split into three blocks. zor’s request, they were already ready to The first block (general requirements) report the work completed: Sakhalin-2 included the inspection of all documents tanks were operated strictly in compli- needed for tank operation, as well as in- ance with the requirements outlined in spection of the qualifications of staff op- process regulation, drained and filled in a erating the tanks based on established re- completely automated manner, the tanks quirements. had no defects that affected their safety The second block (technical condi- and employees were properly qualified. tions) included the inspection of the re- liability of tank design, safeguards, dike, Furthermore, there is special emer- circuit breakers and auxiliary equipment. gency response equipment at the facili- The third block (operations) included ties, external emergency rescue units have the inspection of staff compliance with been formed and emergency action drills the process, as well as the completeness for employees are conducted on a regular and quality of maintenance, repair and basis.” Oil tanks at the Prigorodnoye production complex diagnostics of the tanks during operation. n Recorded by Marina Moruga One Web Page – An Ocean of Information

The Industrial and Fire Safety, Blowout and Emergency Response Department now has its own web page on the company’s internal website. inquiring different specialists or plunging Specialists of the department have done an immense amount of work: they collected and systematised relevant information, overcame various into the ocean of regulatory information is obstacles and resolved different issues, and even worked outside their working hours. They confidently assert that the result is worth all this effort: now available on a single web page. As you the web page has contributed to an increase in the performance of the department and the company’s numerous employees who interact with it. may guess, this is very convenient: it saves people loads of time and effort! According to Anton Kuznetsov, the Each section and subdivision of the de- Moreover, the materials on the web page web page contains all possible information partment has its own page, where they pres- will be updated on an ongoing basis. In this related to the activities of the department. ent detailed information about their main respect, the department employees rely on For example, you can learn about its or - activities, contact details of employees, addi- the help of visitors to the web page. There- ganisational structure, mission and values. tional materials, answers to frequently asked fore, if you find an error or wish to make The ‘Useful Information’ section contains questions and explanation of how to use the a comment or suggestion, please go to the Fountain Incident Management and OLIM- links to different pages and subsections: ‘Feedback’ section. There you can also ask POKS systems. ‘Legal and Regulatory Documents’, ‘In- questions regarding all activities of the de- In a word, everything that previously had ternal Policies and Procedures’, ‘Forms partment. to be found out from the department staff by n Pavel Ryabchikov and Templates’, and ‘Schedule of Learn- ing Events’. The ‘Legal and Regulatory Documents’ tab presents the Russian regulatory legal framework in the area of industrial and fire Safety, blowout and emergency response. To access the current versions of the docu- Anton Kuznetsov ments, it is recommended to use the Con- “The work was quite difficult. One of the sultant Plus programme, following the in- challenges was translating a considerable structions on the page. part of specialised documentation (all infor- In the ‘Internal Policies and Procedures’ mation is presented on the web page in two subsection, you can find the company’s languages, Russian and English). Thank- regulatory documents related to the depart- fully, our colleagues – translators – helped ment and download work instructions with us cope with the task. We are very grateful knowledge-test questions for employees of to them for their assistance!” says Anton hazardous production facilities. Kuznetsov, Engineer of the Industrial Safe- On the ‘Forms and Templates’ page, ty Subdivision. “I would also like to thank there are dozens of templates for documents Valeria Eliseeva, a Web Technologies Spe- which are mandatory for the operation of cialist. We would not have coped with the hazardous production facilities. The tem- job without her professional support and plates are arranged by the department sub- advice.” divisions and sections. Home web page of the Industrial and Fire Safety, Blowout and Emergency Response Department 11 august 2020 learning and development New Professional Horizons Congratulations to the 2017 Intake Traineeship training process and the transformation of trainees into young professionals. Programme Graduates on the completion Even though we cannot meet our graduates in person of an important career stage and the and hold a traditional graduation ceremony this year, noth- ing can stop us from congratulating them in another format. beginning of a new step in their profession! The trainees who completed the Programme while We are ready for the 2020 Intake! working on the rotational shift were congratulated by the teams and managers of the production facilities. All grad- During the first phase of Sakhalin-2 project implemen- uates were presented with memorable gifts – books with an tation, the company set itself the task of staffing its pro- address and parting words from Ole Myklestad, Production duction facilities with qualified Russian workers. For this Director, and Martin Rouws, Deputy HR Director. purpose, Sakhalin Energy developed and launched the We also wish all our graduates’ success in their profes- Traineeship Programme (hereinafter, the Programme). In sional development in a safe work environment! the 17 years of the Programme, a considerable number of Meanwhile, the campaign to intake new participants in production employees have received training and acquired the 2020–2023 Traineeship Programme is gaining momen- qualifications necessary for furthering their professional tum. 2020 graduates career. The beginning of selection campaign was announced “The experience I have obtained during my Traineeship In June 2020, thirteen trainees successfully have com- at the end of May. In the short period since then, Programme is surely priceless, and it wouldn’t be like that pleted the programme, five are promising young operation over 250 CVs have been sent to the SEIC-Traineeship- if not for the team who were always ready to support us and technicians, two enthusiastic instrument technicians, three [email protected] inbox. The specialists of the experienced mentors who can share their knowledge in a full of energy electrical and three powerful mechanical tech- the company’s Technical Training Centre carefully and clear and understandable manner. We were extremely lucky nicians. thoroughly studied each resume for compliance with the both with the former and the latter.” The 2020 graduates have completed the programme in Programme participation requirements. More than 50 ap- Alexey Panov, unprecedented conditions. Nonetheless, they coped suc- plicants have received invitations to interviews, which will LUN-A Operations Technician cessfully with the task and showed excellent results, despite be held from mid-July to mid-August in a brand-new mixed the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. format of face-to-face and remote attendance. Based on the “The Traineeship Programme is a great springboard interviews results, HR specialists and technical experts will giving a powerful start both for graduates and experienced assess the candidates’ knowledge of the relevant discipline, professionals. All stages of the programme are important analyse their personal and business characteristics, and de- The team of the Human Resources Directorate expresses and each step helps to strengthen the theoretical techni- termine their development potential. Trainee candidates sincere gratitude to the colleagues from the Production Direc- cal knowledge, unleash the potential and gain profession- who have demonstrated the best results will be enrolled in torate, who consider the Programme to be a reliable source al skills. The Programme develops high-level professionals of skilled employees, provide comprehensive support in its the Programme and start training in early October. who can successfully compete at the labour market. The implementation, make an invaluable contribution to the training n Svetlana Verbina experience gained at the state-of-the-art assets of Sakhalin and professional development of young professionals. Energy is very valuable.” Dmitriy Osilidchuk, Requirements for a trainee candidate: LNG Mechanical Technician All thirteen trainees from 2017 Intake were recruited  RF citizenship; into the various projects at the company’s production assets.  basic secondary / higher professional education in oil and “When I joined the Sakhalin Energy Traineeship Pro- This serves as a proof that the graduates are properly quali- gas / technical disciplines; gramme I felt like an inexperienced sailor embarking on a fied and recognised for their high professional and personal  vocational certificate in electrician, operations, mechanical great journey. At first it is hard, you have lots of questions, qualities. and instrumentation trades; but once the journey ends you will have gained priceless ex- According to Sakhalin Energy HR Director Alexander  physically fit for a job at an oil and gas facility; perience and obtained a multitude of advantages. I would Sheykin, the successful completion of the programme was  scoring at least ‘4’ according to the Russian knowledge like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire team of the the result of the trainees’ persistent hard work and their assessment system; Technical Training Centre as well as the entire OPF team for desire to get professional knowledge and skills, the expe-  taking Sakhalin Energy’s Internship Programme may be their help and support throughout this journey.” rience and mastery of TTC trainers, as well as the coop- a benefit. Andrey Melekhov, eration of all company departments serving for trainees OPF Operations Technician professional growth – all this ensured the quality of the Case Battle In the June issue of the Vesti, we talked about “Professional training 2.0”, a new online project in which the company took part for the first time. It is high time to share the results. This year we asked students to solve six case Sakhalin Energy specialists carefully studies in several areas: Chemical Engineer- studied all the proposed solutions. Then, ing, Geology, Economics and Construction, Sergey Korovin and Dmitry Litus made and HR Management. Students from the comments on each case study in 30-min- second year of the Bachelor’s programme ute teleconferences. The project culminat- to the last year of the Master’s programme ed in an online event at the end of July. All took part in the contest. Some of them want 19 students attended it. During the event, not only to get an internship at our com- specialists from the Human Resources Di- pany, but also to join us as an employee in rectorate talked about the Sakhalin-2 pro- the future. Some students come from uni- ject and the opportunities that the compa- LNG train construction project, Lead by G.S. Melnikov, student of FEFU versities which we have not interacted yet ny offers to young specialists. Colleagues (for example, the Nizhny Novgorod State from the Technical and Production Di- end of the cycle, students received prizes the development of future engineers. By Technical University n.a. R. E. Alekseev rectorates, who evaluated the case studies, and gifts. solving case studies, students get an idea of and Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State shared the specifics of their work. At the We thank all students for interesting their future job and find practical applica- Pedagogical University). solutions, and the organisers of the project tion of theoretical knowledge”, says Dmitry In total, the company received 19 pa- “Professional training 2.0” is a joint for the invitation to join. Special thanks to Litus, Reservoir Engineer. pers. A number of papers focused on the federal project of the Russia – Land of our colleagues Anna Platonova and Dmitry The company plans to hold the event expansion of the LNG plant. Students did Opportunity autonomous non-profit Litus, who not only created engaging case twice a year and will be likely to need new studies, but also supported us up to the final a very good job: they considered many op- organisation (ANO) and the All-Russia case studies this autumn. If you have any tions to develop the resource base, and used stage of the contest. People’s Front. It is a modern mecha- ideas and suggestions that you can formu- modern risk insurance methods (Bow Tie “Working with students is an important nism of interaction between an employ- late as an assignment for students, please and Swiss Cheese). It is immediately clear area of the company’s activities. By partic- er and a student: the former uploads case contact Maria Nikolaeva. that they have long been interested in both studies (to be solved) online, and the lat- ipating in such processes, the company can n Alexander Morogov the LNG topic and our company’s activi- ter sends their solutions. identify potential candidates for technical ties. positions, and set the desired direction for 12 august 2020

75th anniversary of the Victory The memories are like pattering, incessant rain, the memories are like neverending icy snowflakes

What do these words of the headline mean? They mean that the memory cannot be awakened by an order, it cannot be prescribed by dates and national holidays. It is in the heart of everyone. We commemorate our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, soldiers and homefront workers – veterans of the Great War. The Immortal Regiment continues its march on the pages of Vesti newspaper. The memory of your soldier is not only (and more than) a victorious march in a united column.

The men of glory never die, In July 1942, practically the entire school was sent to Oh, memory, rise up in a guard of honor! the Stalingrad Front. My great-grandfather joined the Vladimir Lugovsky battle for the heroic city with his platoon. He commanded a mortar battery, and then a cadet company of riflemen of Luisa Khetagurova tells the story Ordzhonikidze Cadet Regiment, included in the 64th Army of life of Major General Mikhail Dzilikhov: of the Stalingrad Front. My family carefully keeps the memory of our great- grandfather. My father told me the story of his life, which my dad heard from his grandmother (my great-grandmother) The memories of colonel Dado Muriev, “He dared to advance at Olga. I will do everything in my power to keep this generation night with groups of gunmen to the enemy’s rear, thus disorga- link going. nizing the command at Nazis’ bases. The brave actions caused Great-grandmother Olga’s older brother, Mikhail losses in the enemy’s forces, while our command got important intelligence data...” Babuevich Dzilikhov was born in 1916 in the village The book “Brave Sons of Ossetia” Alagir in Northern Ossetia. The great-grandmother told us that all children in their big family were used to farm labor since early years, each child having his or In September, Mikhail was severely injured in a combat her own duties. Mikhail was a romantic young man. He and was sent to recover. After recovering Senior Lieutenant Dzilikhov went back to the Stalingrad Front to command a mortar company, and then an infantry battalion. In addition to the Battle of Stalingrad, Mikhail Dzilikhov participated in the retake of Voronezh and Kursk**. Military historians believe that Voronezh provided a helping hand to Stalingrad, as Hitler’s troops had to fight in two fronts, while the battle for Voronezh hindered considerable number of enemy forces. The unit under command of the Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Dzilikhov received more than one accolade from the commanders for their heroic actions in defeating the enemy. In May 1943, Dzilikhov was badly wounded again and was sent to recover in Saratov. While his wounds were Dzilikhov remained a commandant until February 15, still fresh, Mikhail was eager to come back to the front. 1946. However, the command ordered him to go to Kuybyshev to My great-grandfather managed to capture a German teach at an infantry school. Mikhail’s combat experience, Sturmbannführer, Alfred Vogel, as well as retrieve two warship expertise, organizing skills, and pedagogical talent metal boxes containing spy files which were to be taken were in demand for training army commanders. His role as to the south-west of Germany to Harz mountains by the an assistant head of the School’s training department soon order of Heinrich Himmler himself. These and other facts produced results. Mikhail Dzilikhov’s know-how allowed to are described in Mikhail Dzilikhov’s documentary “To the improve the process of training military staff. Frontier of the World”. We keep this book in the family In October 1944, Captain Dzilikhov again addressed the archive. command with an earnest request to allow him to go to the After returning to the homeland, Mikhail Dzilikhov was front. Being an executive officer of the rifle regiment, Mikhail a division commander of the Transcaucasian military district fought on the western bank of the river Vistula. In January 1945, the 69th Army, which included the 218th Riflemen and a military commissar at Stavropol military enlistment Regiment under Mikhail Dzilikhov, broke through a far- office. In 1959, he graduated full course at Frunze Military reaching defense of the enemy, liberating Polish cities of Academy. Radom, Lodz, as well as hundreds of settlements. In the final years of his life, my great-grandfather was a By the order of Supreme Commander dd. January 16, director of Dubrava health center in Pyatigorsk. The center 1945, troops participating in the battles for Radom received was built under his management. Mikhail’s German friends commendation, and in Moscow 20 artillery salutes of 224 from Heiligenstadt visited Dubrava health center several loved watching sunrise and sunset, he understood what guns were fired. The liberation of Lodz and other cities and times. 25 years after the Victory, Mikhail Dzilikhov was in the grass and leaves were whispering, he knew what the towns was celebrated with 24 artillery salutes of 324 guns. his turn invited to the German town where he served as a river songs meant. Marvellous nature of Digoria ravine, commandant in wartime. high mountains, turquoise streams, diamond splashes My great-grandfather was awarded with the Order of of waterfalls, everything inspired Mikhail to compose In April, troops of the 69th Army crossed the river Oder south the Red Banner, two Orders of the Great Patriotic War, 1st poetry. Only many years later the friends and the family of Berlin. The memories of colonel Dado Muriev, “In these class, the Order of the Red Star, and nine medals for his found out that the man was writing poems. Mikhail combats, Major Dzilikhov, being Deputy Commander of the service in battle. He died only 6 six months before the 40th graduated Alagir Middle School with distinction and was 221st Guards Rifle Regiment, headed the offensive operation anniversary of Victory. So, that was my great-grandfather, enrolled to the labor faculty of Pedagogic Institute of with vanguard units. Their heroism and courage ensured Mikhail Babuevich Dzilikhov. North Ossetia. He planned to become a teacher in rural successful accomplishment of combat missions in challenging * Since its establishment and until the end of the World circumstances”. area, however, the fate was otherwise. War II, the school has trained thousands of well-qualified Mikhail’s personality contained a strange combination commanders for the Red Army. When the situation at the front of two extremes: the romantic one and the realistic one. In was especially dire, the school sent over 5 thousand cadets and The Victory Day came, but the Soviet forces had 1930-s the world was at the verge of a major war. As they over 2 thousand political officers to the front. to remain in defeated Germany for some time. On July say, Inter arma silent Musae (When arms speak, muses are ** The Soviet soldiers entered the Kursk region in January, silent), so Mikhail joined the Red Army. In 1938 he became 5, 1945, Mikhail Dzilikhov was appointed a military 1943. On January 28, 1943, they encircled a large group of a cadet of Ordzhonikidze Infantry School of the Order commandant of Heiligenstadt. A combat officer was not the enemy’s forces at the village Kastornoye. On February 3, of the Red Banner*. At school, at the labor faculty, at the happy with being appointed to an administrative position. 1943 the troops of the 60th Army under the command of Ivan military school, Mikhail showed brilliant results. Upon Well, one cannot disobey orders. However, the new role Chernyakhovsky seized Cheremisinov, Shchigra and Tim. By graduation he stayed at the military school as a platoon was not so simple. It wasn’t easy to maintain order, fight the end of February 6, they reached the outskirts of Kursk. commander. Mikhail hoped to teach boys and girls and now looters, keep the town residents safe, and prepare for After fierce assault on February 8, 1943, Kursk was retaken. he was training future army officers. winter with the lack of provision, water and fuel. Mikhail Prepared by Elena Gurshal Send us your stories about the war veterans at [email protected] 13 august 2020

figures and facts No other land beyond Volga On July 17, 1942, near the rivers Chir and Tsimla, vanguard units of the 62nd and 64th Armies of the Stalingrad Front met units of the 6th German Army. Thus began the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the major battles of the World War II. It lasted 200 days and nights and ended with defeat of Hitler’s army on February 2, 1943. Background 75 thousand Stalingrad citizens volun- After Barbarossa plan has failed ending in teered to the front. Labor squads, fighter Germans’ defeat at Moscow, Hitler’s army battalions, militia detachments were hur- started preparing for a new assault in the riedly called to defend the city. On night be- Eastern Front. On April 5, 1942 Fuhrer tween August 23 and 24 the labor battalions issued a directive describing the objective of the tractor plant, Barrikady plant, Krasny of the summer campaign: to capture the Oktyabr factory, and other industrial enter- oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus and to prises arrived to defend Stalingrad. reach the river Volga in Stalingrad area. On The enemy has made new crossings June 28 the Nazis began advancing rigor- across the river Don to move one more ously by taking Donbass, Rostov, Vorone- infantry division with tanks to the east- zh. Stalingrad was an important commu- ern shore. The enemy advanced to Kalach nication hub connecting central regions of town. The battle was getting more and more the country with the Caucasus and Central fierce. Asia, while river Volga was a major traffic Several units of the Stalingrad Front at- glasses of water and spoke over the tele - The enemy hoped for a blitzkrieg, how- artery for Caucasian oil. The surrender of tempted to strike back, however, they lacked phone: Comrade Colonel of the guards... ever, Nazis choked on the 62nd Army’s de- Stalingrad could be catastrophic for the So- both tanks and aviation. By mid-Septem- Men are in positions… Combat posts are fense, spending over a month to rip their viet Union. ber, the German Army forced its way into ready... The others are resting... Then Ya- way through. Over this period, the enemy the city center, and kov Pavlov dropped his head on the desk combat continued on and immediately went to sleep. the streets. It took Na- Almost 500 tanks were used in the assault In fierce defensive battles, not only the zis weeks to capture a on Stalingrad. German air force dropped enemy’s offensive power has been destroyed single street, a single about one million bombs on the city. with depletion of the main striking group of building. In the August air battles at Stalin - the German army in the southern wing of the grad, pilot Viktor Rogalsky and a group Soviet-German front, the Soviet troops now Their heroism of storm troopers covered the crossing of had everything they needed to move to a is immortal the river Don. His plane got hit buy the counterattack. The guards’ attention enemy’s AA projectile and caught fire was focused on one of during one of the rounds. Rescue was not the houses standing possible. So, Viktor Rogalsky directed advanced only 43 miles ahead, and the av- a little away from the his ablaze plane to the group of Nazis’ erage offensive rate did not exceed 1.5 miles other buildings. This tanks. His comrades-in-arms witnessed a day. building has been cru- as the burning planed pierced the Ger - By mid-September, Hitler’s newspapers cial in the defense of man convoy. 20-year-old hero destroyed were reporting on Stalingrad in a completely the area. Guards of almost a dozen tanks before meeting his different tone than in August. They had to Hitler strived to execute the plan within Sergeant Yakov Pavlov with three soldiers own death. admit that the battle at Stalingrad was not a week by engaging the notorious Friedrich were sent to scout. Wounded soldiers of the At a station west of Stalingrad, the po- going to end promptly. Paulus’ 6th Army, that crossed the Europe, Red Army and the combat medic, Kalinin litical commissar of an fought in Poland, Belgium, and France, as were in the building. Kalinin was sent to the independent company well as the 4th Tank Army under command regimental headquarters for help. He passed of anti-tank rifles of the of Hermann Hoth. The group included 13 the message, however, until reinforcement guard, Gerasimov, with divisions, about 270,000 men, 3,000 guns two combat crews cov- and about 500 tanks. ered the departure of a As for the USSR, the Stalingrad Front “…Some persistent assaults on houses unit to new positions. was to resist the German Army. The Stalin- lasted for hours. Men fought by their walls, Twenty German tanks grad Front was established by the decision in barely holding rooms and corridors were heading to the of the High Command on July 12, 1942. filled with broken bricks, where the fighters trenches, where Gera- Defensive phase tripped over loose wires, among crumpled simov’s riflemen were. metal bedframes, kitchenware and other They allowed the enemy The strategic defense lasted 125 days (from paraphernalia”, wrote Vasily Grossman in his to get as close as 50–75 July 17 to November 18, 1942). “The Battle of Stalingrad” documentary. yards away. A few guards The armies of Don and South-Eastern destroyed 10 tanks, mak- Fronts with the support of the Volga Warship ing other machines flee. Flotilla forces carried out the operation. As Eight out of ten heroes the combat continued, the Soviet Army ac- arrived, the scouts had to endure a violent died game. quired additional forces of South-Eastern battle on their own. General command- Front command, five commands of com- Every way to the main fighting line ing officer, Ivan Ilyich bined arms army, and two commands of passed through Pavlov’s house, as they Lyudnikov, remembers tank armies, as well as 56 divisions and 33 called this building. Pavlov’s house was Early autumn passed in fighting. On the most strenuous days of Stalingrad de- brigades. the land mark for scouts sent on a mission. September 12 the combat proceeded to the fense, “Six men were holding the defense. On August 23 the German tanks ap - Commanders wrote in their reports: north- streets of Stalingrad. The city was defended In a day, only one was left (I don’t remem - proached Stalingrad. On the same date a west of Pavlov’s house; 200 yards away to by the units of the 62nd and 64th Armies. ber his name, unfortunately). The trench large formation of Nazis’ planes attacked the left from Pavlov’s house, etc. The Germans made four attempts at as- was Z-shaped, so the hero placed his com - the city. Their air strikes have never been The heroic garrison fought against the saulting the city, one after another. By No- rades’ rifles in positions, loaded the guns more powerful. The bombing continued enemy for 58 days straight. At dawn, Oc - vember, nearly the entire city was invaded and prepared grenades. He was going from for several days without stop. Oil tanks of tober 13, the enemy opened heavy artillery by Nazis, despite the resistance. Only a little rifle to rifle, firing and throwing grenades the Soviet Oil Syndicate, buildings and fire; the assault began at 8 a.m. Nazis’ in - piece of land along Volga was maintained by in different directions. On his own, the sol - houses… everything was on fire. The glow fantry advanced at the square, while tanks our soldiers. dier fought like a squad of men. He fought of the gigantic fire was visible dozens of attacked the house from behind a group of Prepared by Elena Gurshal based on ma- all day long. In the evening the man report - miles away. Thousands of people lost buildings to the right. The planes bombed terials from shtorm777.ru web-site, the book by their home, many died under wreckage. the only way to the house. By the evening of ed to the unit commander saying that he A. Stupov and V. Kokunov, “62nd Army in Battle Stalingrad citizens fled to the left bank October 15, the combat subsided. Sergeant feels a bit lonely and wouldn’t mind a little for Stalingrad”, and other internet sources. of Volga. Pavlov went to the cellar, gulped three company”. To be continued…

Send us your stories about the war veterans at [email protected] 14 august 2020

assets studies to calculate the adhesion coeffi- cients for the identified rock layers. How to Tame the “Beast” – What does the adhesion coefficient of rocks mean? In summer, most people go to the country to cultivate their gardens, – Imagine geological rocks as an while cities have a lot of work to do: housing development, road and open sandwich. The slip plane is the butter, and cheese is moving on its sur- building renovation. This is a busy season for gas and oil workers as face. The desired coefficient shows how well. Egor Levkovsky, Onshore Pipelines Right-of-Way Manager, talks firmly the butter adheres to the cheese. In some cases, you need a large mass of about the way the company deals with landslide areas. earth to move the cheese. In other cas- es, almost any activity (such as tremors es, human economic activities. As I’ve – Egor, the Trans-Sakhalin pipeline sys- in the earth’s crust, or movement of a tem of the Sakhalin-2 Project has a total mentioned, the occurrence of landslides truck) can trigger the process. In fact, length of about 1,600 kilometres. How do largely depends on the geological struc- this coefficient determines the severi- you identify landslide areas? Do you use ture and terrain of the area. By analysing ty of the situation and, eventually, how any special methods? the combination of these two factors and much resources the company will spend – Yes, of course. The pipeline system using corporate databases, geomatics of our project is one of the longest uni- specialists can identify hazardous areas. to strengthen the landslide area. fied systems not only in Russia, but also In addition to steep slopes and related – What technologies and practices do in the world. We use the Deming Cycle, moisture containing rocks, one of the you use for strengthening? a widely accepted technique in HSE, for most important factors contributing to – It all comes down to two tasks: right-of-way management activities, in- the formation of landslides is the pres- drainage (draining the slip plane) and cluding identification and elimination ence of groundwater. Overlying layers are fixing the unstable soil mass to stop its of landslide hazards. This technique is usually displaced along the groundwater changes, the presence of cracks on the movement. We use special trays, ge- widely used wherever it is necessary to table. surface, and a number of other criteria, omembranes and slope breakers for sur- establish a continuous improvement This factor is more difficult to deal they make a conclusion about the state face drainage, and perforated pipes for process. with. In geological terms, Sakhalin is a of previously identified areas. underground drainage. Soil masses are Monitoring or control is one of its fairly young region; it is still developing. Unfortunately, geologists cannot de- fixed using a retaining wall. Reinforced stages. Our job is not only to identify Despite the knowledge of the island’s termine with absolute accuracy when the concrete piles are drilled into bedrock, changes that can directly or indirect- groundwater, the nature and distribution time comes for critical landslide activi- installed, and connected to each oth- ly affect the integrity of the pipeline, of specific aquifers are highly variable ty. They can only identify the activation er by a reinforced concrete wall. By the but also to plan the hazard elimination, and require a more detailed field study. or acceleration of this process. Today, a way, the mountainous part of Sochi was while optimising the cost/time to benefit The Makarov District is one of the most landslide may sleep, but tomorrow it can built using this method. ratio. What is the most important, you difficult areas in this regard. Landslides come to life and start moving at a double There is another interesting method need to do your work safely, without in- are also recorded in the Dolinsk and rate. – anchor fields. We used this method to juries and damage to the environment, Korsakov Districts. – You’ve said that you use a register to fix a landslide at the 420th kilometre of record all changes in the area and mark the pipeline. In this case, a huge amount landslide areas. Could you give more de- of soil gets stabilised by means of the tails about it? – Yes, we have a special register with so-called “string bag”, instead of a wall, about 30 landslide areas. Most of them which serves as a barrier to moving soil were identified at the construction and masses. Small-diameter metal anchors pre-construction phases. But if we find are drilled 10–15 meters into the land- new areas, we supplement the register. slide body at a spacing of 2–3 meters, In this database, landslide areas are covering its entire area deeper than the marked using a traffic light system. Red slip plane. Then soil masses are fixed means that further corrective steps need from above with steel ropes anчd special to be considered. Green means that galvanised mesh in several layers. The only monitoring is required. This al- topsoil is placed as the last layer to re- lows us to allocate efforts and resourc- duce the risk of erosion. Although this es properly. For example, if we get the method is cheaper than the previous same monitoring data as last year, this one, it requires a lot of experience and means that the area is not changing. special equipment from the contractor. It remains in the green zone. For are- as located in the red zone, we develop Unfortunately, it is not always possible to anti-landslide measures and implement find this equipment on Sakhalin. special projects. – If you have completed the construc- – When do you start repair work? tion and repair of a landslide area, you will – As soon as a landslide area turns not return to it any more, won’t you? The pipeline right of way, strengthening the landslide area, Makarov district into the red zone, we usually assess its – Not quite true. After construction, state and develop a repair plan. Although installation, and repair, the landslide with all necessary permits and approvals. We use comprehensive monitoring to there is still some time left, we are com- area is included in the green zone. Then If we talk about factors or, in gener- identify hazardous areas. We regularly mitted to acting proactively. we need to keep the structure in good al, about reasons that can have a nega- fly over the entire pipeline route by hel- – How, then, do experts study land- working order. We inspect and maintain tive effect on the operation of pipelines, icopter throughout the year. Moreover, slide areas? it regularly. For example, we clean the they can be divided into two categories. twice a year – in spring after snow melt – After hazard identification, we pro- drainage trays. The first one includes everything that is and in autumn during the rainy season – vide information on the area to a spe- – Do other units of the company sup- related to human activities. The second employees of the Pipeline Maintenance cialised design organisation so that they port you? one includes influences of the natural Depots make walking rounds of the study it in detail and develop anti-land- environment. The worst combination of right-of-way to monitor external erosion slide measures. Then special engineer- – Certainly. Our work is greatly sup- geological, terrain and weather condi- phenomena. ing surveys are performed in accordance ported by the Engineering Department, tions creates landslide areas on the right- The landslide itself is an interesting with construction standards and regula- the Geomatics Division, the HSE De- of-way. “beast”. In order to identify it visually, tions. Specialists of the institute visit the partment, the Compliance Division, the They are characterised by large rock you need special knowledge. Employ- site, drill wells, extract a core, and local- Corporate Security Department, and masses which are displaced under gravity ees of our Geomatics Department have ise groundwater. In the laboratory, they other directorates of the company. To- along the slope. The process is activated the relevant competencies. They know determine the physical and mechanical gether, we are able to successfully address by erosion of slopes, excessive moisten- well the pipeline route and geological composition of extracted cores, and con- even the most challenging problems. ing, seismic shocks and, in some cas- processes. Based on the terrain and its duct a series of physical and mechanical n By Alyona Olovyanishnikova 15 august 2020

continuous improvement Preventing Muda from Harming Gemba, or the Power of Small Steps We present a series of articles that focus on the core elements, tools and techniques number of personnel. It had a significant impact of continuous improvement, as well as examples of their practical application at Sakhalin on the overall efficiency Energy. The words in the headline may sound a little strange. Nevertheless, people who are of production activities. To resolve the problem, familiar with business processes understand their meaning perfectly well; those who are only it was decided to revise discovering this area should read the article attentively: we will try to explain everything in detail. the structure of the work- ing day. It was clear that measures had to be taken to coordinate the work of After the end of World War II, William Edwards Deming equate equipment or personnel performance. This leads to a the departments. To this arrived in Japan (with almost destroyed economy) with a general decrease in productivity, an increase in the amount end, a general plan for suggestion to “work and think in a new way”. The Japanese of time to manufacture a product and, as a result, to person- the shift was introduced, quickly adopted his ideas about production management nel demotivation. in which representatives based on quality control, frugality, and cyclical decision Now let us proceed from theory to practice. First you of each discipline have to making. Later, Deming’s followers significantly expanded will see how the principles of continuous improvement con- Ilnur Khuziakhmetov indicate the teams they his ideas and created a philosophy that combined the indus- tributed to the issue of awaiting on the Sakhalin-2 offshore need to interact with for the issue of a work permit. triousness, patience, aptitude for contemplation and pursuit platforms. Ilnur Khuziakhmetov and Denis Oleynik, Oper- The elimination of the period, when employees were of perfection, characteristic of the Japanese, with commer- ational Excellence Engineers from LUN-A and Molikpaq waiting for the issue of work permits, has freed up to cial rationalism. platforms, respectively, 6,500 man-hours per year (equivalent to the labour costs of All this created a strong basis for the philosophy of con- will tell us about it. three employees), helped to do away with rush usually ob- tinuous improvement—kaizen, which emerged some time “Coordination of served at the beginning of the shift and thus improve safety. later. The complicated Japanese terms, which can some- work and communication Our key to success is observation in the real place where times bring a smile to one’s lips, added an oriental flavour between the departments work done and commitment of all participants in the work to the new theory. Every day hard-working, persistent Japa- are essential to efficient processes to the common cause. nese people go to gemba* to look for muda** and eliminate production activities. Us- Improving the company’s business processes means that, it. That is, they go to their workplace to look for and elimi- ing the gemba method, we in addition to their functional activities, all employees are nate wastes and everything else that interferes with effective discovered that the way in constantly looking for ways to optimise them. Continuous production. Along with the Japanese, the entire progres- which work permits were improvement is a process aimed at improving our day-to- sive world is engaged in continuous improvement, because issued in the morning was day performance on an ongoing basis and in all respects.” kaizen has long proven its high efficiency. a common issue across In this article, we have analysed only one type of wastes Continuous improvement can be described as a philos- the platforms. These doc- — idle time due to waiting. We can make a whole list, adding ophy that is integrated into the culture of a company at the uments are essential for operational level. It is a process where one improvement the safe performance of entails another more. Normally, these are only small im- work and require careful Denis Oleynik provements in the working processes rather than large-scale verification and specif- projects. This phenomenon can be called “the power of ic actions. Work permits are to be issued before the start of small steps”. work, so platform staff spent an hour and a half every day waiting to receive them, which led to ineffective loss of working time. The organisation of work on each platform has its own specific features; for this reason, different methods were used to solve the problem of idle time spent waiting for work permits. The common things for all the platforms were the structured approach and the continuous improvement tools such as Go See/Gemba, DILO, SIPOC, and Fishbone.

Solution implemented on the PA-B platform

Piltun-Astokhskoye-B overproduction (production of goods or services in larger The analysis showed that, at the beginning of the work- quantities than needed by the customer, unnecessary em- ing day, the Maintenance Department normally waited for ployee actions and motions, about the work site, search the Operations Department to complete the morning shift for information, excessive transportation (moving materi- handover and equipment check. It was decided to estab- als over longer distances and more often than necessary), A kanban board with cards, representing “small steps” lish different schedules for these units so that the shift of inventory (accumulation of stocks above the necessary or the Maintenance Department would begin an hour later. As required levels), over-processing (imparting properties and Any process consists of jobs that add value for the end a result, its employees can start work almost immediately, qualities that the consumer does not need), defects (manu- user, and those that only consume resources. The latter are without wasting any time. facture of defective parts and their subsequent correction). called “wastes”, or muda, according to the kaizen terminol- As you can see, we still have a lot of issues to discuss. If ogy, in CI we also specify it – Non-value added activities. Lunskoye-A you have any examples of waste reduction or the use of con- Therefore, identifying and reducing wastes in the produc- The procedure and schedule of morning meetings in the Op- tinuous improvement tools, please contact SEIC Continu- tion, management and business processes in general are the erations and Maintenance Departments were revised; the ous Improvement SEIC-FD. Today is the best day to start basis for continuous improvement. number of participants in the meetings was reduced; a “live” the changes; now is the best moment for it. One of the wastes which are the easiest to notice and document and an overview plan called structured day, were n Prepared by Svyatoslav Zaitsev, Alina Sin, Elena Gurshal understand is “waiting” — the time when equipment or per- created to ensure well-coordinated work of all the depart- * Gemba means “a real place”. This term is used to refer to sonnel are idle, waiting for something. It is mainly caused ments on the platform. the area of direct work production, or, in particular, the place by inconsistency and lack of coordination between different where value is for the consumer. units, insufficient speed, irregularity or failure in the supply Piltun-Astokhskoye-A (Molikpaq) ** Muda means “waste, unjustified costs”, that is, any ac- of documents, raw and other materials, waiting for the com- The work permit waiting issue was of special concern on tivity that consumes resources, but does not create value for the pletion of the equipment operation or approval cycle, inad- the Molikpaq platform due to the large scope of work and customer. 16 august 2020

russian content It is not mere arithmetic Under the Production Sharing Agreement, Sakhalin Energy has the Sea of Okhotsk can be con- committed itself to maximising the use of Russian workforce, ducted during the ice-free season: from late May or early June until materials, and equipment. The utilisation of Russian Content in storms set in around October or 2019 was 91% in man-hours and 84% in materials and equipment. November. Since 2019, subsea Developing Russian Content is not mere arithmetic but one of engineering operations involving the deployment of both ROVs Sakhalin Energy’s key focus areas that spans across multiple and divers have been performed disciplines of the Sakhalin-2 project, including subsea engineering simultaneously from a single mul- operations. ti-purpose vessel, MS Yevgeny Primakov, lasting two months a year. Formerly, however, several The Sakhalin shelf is marked by water form substructure level, which are used, vessels had been required to con- depths ranging between 40 and 50 meters among other things, to feed water to the duct the operations separately. We and adverse metocean conditions. In such firefighting pumps. The trajectory of the have optimised the duration of a challenging environment where the Sea remotely operated vehicle capable of our seasonal work by mobilising of Okhotsk waters are covered with ice moving both vertically and horisontally is the personnel and equipment to a floes and hydrocarbons are produced from fully floodlit to enable high-quality video fixed offshore platforms, subsea engineer- single vessel. shooting. Another feature offered by the “Besides, we use the same ing operations have attained a sole-source ROV is the ability to gauge the thickness status. According to geomatics manager very vessel to monitor and, where of walls, such as the walls of the tanker necessary, stabilise our subsea Vladimir Kashpurovich, Sakhalin Energy loading unit at the Prigorodnoye pro- arranges the work in collaboration with pipelines. This kind of subsea duction complex. The equipment can be the Russian companies participating in operations focuses on the proper deployed 24/7, which may be especially the Corporate Vendor Development Pro- and precise identification of the useful at night. gramme, which helps Russian businesses so-called ‘pipeline free spans’. To “The company maintains a strict con- improve their competences and increase pinpoint the free span locations, their involvement in the Sakhalin-2 pro- trol hierarchy when it arranges and con- a dual-head Multi-beam Echo ject while adhering to stringent environ- ducts subsea engineering operations. In Sounder (MBES) mounted on mental and occupational safety require- the first place, whether such operations the ROV is used in combination ments. would make practical sense is always de- with the video stream from its For instance, Sakhalin Energy has cided in conjunction with the company’s three cameras. Having analysed been cooperating with PetroGasTech TAs and managers who are in charge of the hydrographic and video data Shelf Service to conduct safe and efficient subsea equipment integrity. If a favourable related to free span identification, Remotely operated underwater vehicle visual inspections of its offshore assets us- decision is taken, the second step will be we stabilise such free span zones ing a remotely operated underwater vehi- cle (ROV). “Those are our eyes and hands that provide us with information about the condition of our pipelines, gravity-base structures, jetties, and the related subsea infrastructure. The ROV is fitted with manipulators capable of handling vari- ous tools, such as devices for measuring the cathode potential of underwater steel structures in order to assess the reliabili- ty of the cathode protection system re- sponsible for corrosion prevention,” says Vladimir Kashpurovich. The ROV’s advantages do not stop there, though. The tree-tonne heavy ma- chine with detachable auxiliaries is used to clean the biofouled grilles of the life support water intake systems at the plat- Visualisation and identification of pipeline free spans to make plans as to how it by pouring coarse crushed stone. This is Besides, Sakhalin Energy takes part can be done, with the ROV achieved through the ROV-subsea posi- in improving the RFs regulatory require- or by a hydrographic sur- tioning system. To make sure everything ments governing subsea engineering vey. Divers will only step in is done properly, we finalise the process by operations. Specifically, the company if the required scope can- an as-built hydrographic or bathimetric adapts its shareholders’ best practices in not possibly be complet- survey,” notes Anton Trush, Head of the the field of offshore surveys, implements ed by employing less risky subsea surveys subdivisions. a programme for the harmonisation of in- methods. In some cases, The digital models of the seafloor ob- ternational standards and guidelines, and the ROV is used in con- tained through the hydrographic surveys participates in the panel of the RF Minis- junction with diving op- are a reliable source of information used try of Labour and Social Security for the erations, especially where to pinpoint the potentially hazardous development of new occupational safety just deploying the ROV is objects from the outside, e.g. anchors in rules for divers. not considered sufficient the direct vicinity of offshore pipelines or Taking into account Sakhalin Ener- to perform maintenance of tyres near the Prigorodnoe offshore jetty gy’s priorities governing Russian Content, one or another element of that can prevent a tow boat from safely an offshore asset,” clarifies handling an arriving LNG carrier. the exchange of experience and coopera- Mikhail Nekrasov, Head of According to Vladimir Kashpurovich, tion with contractors in the field of import Subsea Engineering Oper- the subsea engineering requirement of substitution along with the implementa- ations and Metocean Sur- Sakhalin Energy are based on the current tion of the best practices are the guarantee veys. RF regulatory documents and the recom- of the company’s successful implementa- The annual subsea en- mendations of the international organisa- tion of its current objectives. Multi-purpose vessel, MS Yevgeny Primakov gineering campaigns in tions. n Source: the Gas Industry Magazine 17 august 2020

russian content The Great Potential of New Projects “When it comes to partnering with Russian companies, you should 67% of the total costs. for application of Russian solutions that – What actions and steps does your De- fit Sakhalin Energy’s criteria. At the same be prepared for long-term painstaking work,” says Oleg Yakovlev, partment take today to increase the number time, we try to identify possible obstacles Head of Engineering Subdivision of the Projects Delivery Department. of projects with Russian Content? to Russian Content development and think – Our current undertaking is a large- of ways to eliminate them. For example, if al standards and using foreign equipment, scale project to change the contractor hired a project calls for compliance with inter- materials and technologies. On the one for engineering and technical maintenance national standards or specific testing that hand, use of machinery from the world’s and design services from an internation- cannot be carried out in Russia, we ask leading manufacturers has ensured excel- al company, Production Service Network ourselves whether we can forgo them and lent reliability and fail safety of produc- Sakhalin (PSNS), to a domestic one, the use Russian technologies. Based on the re- tion, but, on the other hand, it set a certain Gazproektinzhiniring (GPI) Design In- sults of that comprehensive assessment, we barrier for Russian Content development, stitute. In addition to that, we are active- fill out a specially designed Russian Con- as all procurement of direct substitutes of ly collaborating with the Russian Content tent Check List, which is then presented to equipment and materials for the project Team. Since 2019, we have been working the company management. If the proposed should comply with international specifi- with GPI to find Russian substitutes for the requirements are approved, they are inte- cations. Add to that the small volumes of shut-off and control valves we’re using. grated into the project from its inception, procurement and the fact that we contact Furthermore, we initiated the creation of and this will allow for maximising the en- Russian companies at the tender stage or a company-wide Approved Vendor List. To- gagement of Russian companies at the ma- shortly before, when there’s not much time day, the domestic manufacturers that passed terials and equipment procurement stage. to carefully examine the prospects of using audits in 2016–2018 as part of the LNG Over the six months that we have been domestic solutions and coordinate all the plant expansion project are being added to implementing this initiative, opportunities deviations. All this limits the opportuni- this list. Simultaneously, we are working on for application of Russian solutions have – In 2018, the Committee of Executive Di- ties for large-scale engagement of Russian creating uniform qualification requirements been determined in a number of projects. rectors positioned Russian Content develop- companies in tenders for equipment up- and creating a universal e-questionnaire for Now, they are undergoing approval within ment as one of the key tasks for all units of the grades and retrofitting projects at the exist- Russian companies. the company. company. What is the development potential ing assets, and this is why we keep on buy- At the beginning of 2020, we launched a As part of this initiative, we have creat- for Russian Content in upgrading equipment ing foreign equipment, whose design does pilot initiative aimed at examining and im- ed a database of Russian specifications that and retrofitting projects, in your opinion? not need to be tweaked. plementing Russian solutions (which have systematises approved and already imple- proven themselves in actual production) at – During implementation of a project, Based on my experience on the OPF mented domestic solutions. You can find a early stages of project preparation. This in- we have to consider its integration with the Compression Project, I can say that, when link to this database on the Intranet page it comes to partnering with Russian compa- itiative was developed in cooperation with of the Russian Content and Supplier Re- whole process chain and be very detail-ori- nies, you should be prepared for long-term the Russian Content Team. In July 2019, its lationship Team. Such a database will not ented in choosing new equipment and ma- painstaking work. To develop Russian con- concept was approved by the Committee of only make it possible to avoid unnecessary terials, while paying attention to all possible tractors, Sakhalin Energy needs to allocate Executive Directors. Next year, we plan on examinations of similar solutions, but will risks. This is imperative because the process certain resources and investments. To this fully integrating it into the company’s exist- also ensure their successful implementa- flow of the Sakhalin-2 project does not in- effect, it is necessary to assess beforehand ing procedures. tion and replication at different company clude backup trains, so if any component the future material and equipment needs, – Could you give more details about how assets. fails, it will lead to a partial or complete halt as well as the volume and frequency of pro- this initiative works? In my opinion, such systematic ap- of production, which will result in financial curements. – We look at the planned projects for proach, in conjunction with consistent losses for the company. In this regard, I believe that new projects the equipment upgrades and retrofit- standards and the engagement of GPI in the You also have to keep in mind that have big potential. For example, it is esti- ting and choose the ones that are at early project work, will pave the way for the steady Sakhalin-2 facilities were designed and mated that, at the design stage, the Russian preparation stages. Then we assess them growth of projects with Russian Content. constructed largely based on internation- Content of LNG Train 3 Project will reach comprehensively in terms of their potential n By Virginiya Lakomova

cessfully working with Russian manufactur- ers that demonstrated high levels of compli- Sharing Experience Online ance with international standards of quality and safety and contributed significantly to On 19 June, the Russian Content Development and Supplier from the confines of their homes or offices, the efficient work of the unique oil and gas while the viewers asked their questions in project. Relationship Team participated in the 15th Annual Neftegazsnab-2020 the comments section in real time. Over 130 representatives of various ener- Conference. Given the ongoing pandemic, it was decided to host Sakhalin Energy was represented at the gy companies took part in the online event. the reputed industry event online. The speakers’ presentations were Conference by Dmitry Dubik, Lead Spe- Many of the Conference’s attendees showed streamed on the Conference’s YouTube channel and social media. cialist of the Russian Content Development interest in joining the Vendor Development and Supplier Relationship Team. His pres- Programme, inquired about what kind The Annual Neftegazsnab-2020 Confer- about the supplier selection process, tender entation was entitled “The Supplier Devel- of support the company provides to Rus- ence is a great platform for SCM manag- procedures, and answer questions from par- opment Programme as a Procurement Lo- sian manufacturers today, how supplier ers and experts from the largest oil and gas ticipants. calisation Tool”. pre-qualification and selection processes companies to communicate with their part- This year, due to the pandemic, the Con- Dmitry listed Sakhalin Energy’s most are organised, and so on. ners from among manufacturers. Repre- ference took place in an unusual format: the impressive achievements in Russian content Participation in these kinds of events is sentatives of the oil and gas industry speak speakers gave their presentations remotely, development from the past few years and very important for the Russian Content De- spoke about how the company cooperates velopment Team and the SCM Department with domestic manufacturers in order to as a whole. It is a great opportunity to have develop their competencies and increase the open, direct dialogues with representatives share of their products and services used for of the domestic oil and gas sector, during the Sakhalin-2 project. which we can state our company’s needs and The subject of the presentation was cho- learn first-hand about relevant challenges sen for a reason, as creating conditions for and the leading technologies of potential import substitution and supply chain local- Russian partners. Efficient communication isation is one of the key tasks of the SCM with domestic suppliers is important both Department. Russian companies play an at the initial stage of cooperation as well important role in this process: it is their will- as for future work together. Therefore, the ingness and dedication to improving their Team plans to keep participating in similar approach to production and work quality conferences in the future, as well as to host that truly makes the difference. round-table discussions with Russian sup- The Vendor Development Programme, pliers. launched in 2007, has helped our company n Russian Content Development The company spoke about the vendor development programme at the online conference to accumulate considerable experience suc- and Supplier Relationship Team 18 august 2020

analitics Applying Artificial Intelligence in Oil and Gas Industry The oil and gas industry has been going through certain changes in recent years. The current • automatic selection of the optimal model. decline in prices for oil and other commodities pose a serious challenge to producers AI-based methods make it possible and prompts them to seek new innovative solutions: ways to improve the efficiency of both to search through a much larger num- ber of models, while the machine can current operations and strategic planning. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of these ways. apply various combinations of methods at the same time (for example, neural In a broad sense, AI is the capability of structure and boundaries of geological service life may cost millions of rou- networks in conjunction with the sup- computer systems to simulate human features, to analyse water saturation bles. This is why it is so important to port vector machine). In this case, it be- intelligence in performing various tasks, and permeability. evaluate equipment and predict its fail- comes possible to choose not just from such as learning, reasoning, self-correc- Analysis of geological data is ex- ures, in order to ensure that its loading, a larger absolute number of models but tion, etc. Two key areas prevail in the tremely important to assess oil and gas maintenance, and safe operation are also from a larger number of various oil and gas industry: machine learning occurrence in the areas under study. Ar- properly planned. Sufficiently accurate types of models. As of today, a number of and data analysis. Based on machine tificial neural networks make it possible prediction of failures based on machine AI-based methods have been developed learning, computer systems can learn to analyse a geological section based on learning can ensure high operational re- to forecast prices, but neural networks and interpret data without human in- seismic survey data. If artificial intelli- liability, safety, and economic efficiency remain the most popular one. Thanks to volvement, while improving their per- gence is applied in this area, it improves of industrial facilities. the fact that neural networks can work formance through iterations of specific the efficiency of geological exploration Price Forecasting with complex, multi-format, and even operations. This allows companies to work, increasing the speed and accura- Forecasting has become another appli- incomplete data, they are suitable for better control complex internal process- cy of the work and reducing its cost. cation for artificial intelligence. Signif- working with non-linear, non-station- es and quickly respond to problems that Operation of Fields icant decline in prices of minerals (in- ary, and volatile series, including com- people cannot predict. Artificial intelligence is also applied in cluding oil, coal, and many metals) has modity prices. It is worth noting that this trend has operation of fields. Smart fields (also created a demand for better methods of Artificial intelligence can generate emerged in the last decade, primarily called “digital fields”) are a good ex- analysis. Artificial intelligence opens new knowledge based on available in- due to miniaturisation and reduction in prices of data storage and processing devices, datafication of corporate pro- cesses (continuous logging, quick con- version into a processable format). Machine learning is successfully used to simulate various situations. De- pending on the input data, the system chooses the most suitable template for predicting certain events.

The only thing an artificial neuron does is receive signals from many inputs, process them in a unified manner, and transmit the output to many other artificial neurons, that is, it does the same thing as a biological neuron. Connections between artificial neu- rons are called synapses. The synapse has a single parameter: the weighting factor. Depending on its value, a particular change in information occurs when it is transmitted from one neuron to another. It is thanks to this that the input information is processed and converted into output data. Neural network learning is based on experimental selection of such weighting factor for each ample. They imply remote management up new opportunities for describing formation and automate routine pro- synapse. of oil and gas production facilities and and predicting events in both financial cesses. The key advantage of this meth- staff, by using various artificial intel- and commodity markets. The strength od is that its applications are not limited ligence methods (including machine of analytical AI-based methods is their to the problems described above. Based Most advanced machine learning learning, ANN, genetic algorithms, ability to simulate the behaviour of on available structured data and ideas algorithms, artificial neural networks fuzzy logic, etc.). Automation of the market players as accurately as possible for their interpretation, machine learn- (ANNs), are based on the principle of process improves the efficiency of the and to represent social aspects of eco- ing can be used to solve various applied problems. biological neural networks. field development: it reduces costs while nomic relations. Very often, commodity Therefore, artificial intelligence ANN-based computer systems are increasing the production rate (due to companies develop their own models to methods have a number of advantages used very widely. Below are only a few of forecast prices of the raw materials be- higher energy efficiency, higher produc- over traditional approaches and can be- the problems from the oil and gas indus- tivity of equipment and staff), optimises ing sold. Most of these models are based try which can be successfully solved by come an appropriate tool for improving the management process, and contrib- on traditional econometrics, such as the operational efficiency, especially in such systems. utes to openness and transparency of multivariate regression models. The key the oil and gas industry. Geological Data Interpretation the information. According to a study advantages of AI-based methods over n Prepared by Maxim Bakulin, based ANNs are used to predict various geo- by the Cambridge Energy Research traditional econometric models include: on articles: Improving the Efficiency of the physical parameters (for example, such Association (CERA), production rates • contextual processing of informa- Oil and Gas Sector and Other Extractive reservoir properties as porosity and net of smart fields are 2–10% higher than tion; Industries by Applying Methods of Artificial pay) or to plot well log curves. Machine those of “non-digital” fields. • adaptability and learning ability of Intelligence, by P. Kaznacheev, R. Samoilo- learning is also used in geophysics to Wrong decisions to withdraw indus- the models; va, and N. Kjurchiski; Anomaly Detection in interpret logging data and seismic pros- trial equipment from service or, on the • tolerance for errors; Mechanisms by Using Machine Learning, pecting data, determine the lithological contrary, to unreasonably extend its • no need for data pre-processing; by A. Dyakonov and A. Golovina 19 august 2020

environment It’s not a Sprint, it’s a Marathon “I know why the coronavirus appeared. It is because the planet is the best. Some houses in the residential don’t print as many documents as before choking on all the garbage” – that’s the guess made by the 5-year-old complex “Zima Highlands” use food – e-copies are enough. Also, at home I waste disposal systems. For many fami- rarely use sticky notes, which we use at daughter of Roza Galimzyanova. Mom might not completely agree lies in the city it’s an exotic thing, rather work all the time – a notebook is OK for with the girl, however, she has her own set of rules for managing than a simple home appliance. me. We should think about cutting the waste. Of course, I use reusable shopping use of disposable pens and markers. For bags when I go to the store, but here we example, in Germany they recycle sta- a beacon of environmental awareness. have another problem: fruits and veg- tionery, which will take years to decom- The waste dump alone says a lot! That etables are sold in plastic bags. Today I pose in normal circumstances. I decided is why I went to Sakhalin State Univer- asked my husband and daughter to get to get a metal pen with disposable ink sity to study Environment and Natural some fresh vegetables… and the shop holders (they are not easy to recycle ei- Resources Management. My work since packed them in plastic. When we want to ther, but at least they are smaller). then has somehow been connected with buy a small pastry, they have to put it in a Teaching people to manage their giant plastic box… It’s not easy to change this field. I have also handled waste man- waste the right way is not a sprint, it’s the situation, yet, it’s possible with per- agement. a marathon. It’s hard, it’s complicat- I have certain rules in my everyday sistence and the help of the government ed, yet, it’s not impossible. Begin with life too, for example, I always sort waste. and businesses. small steps: start sorting waste at home There’s a company in Yuzhno-Sakhal- Some countries have taken decisive and at work. I suggested to my daughter insk that accepts paper, plastic and alu- measures to cut the use of plastic drinking we stop buying plastic balloons, as they minum for recycling. By the way, the straws. And it has produced great results! details are published on the Sakhalin It shows that it is actually easy to stop us- live too short and decompose too long, Energy web-site. I also came up with ing drinking straws. Our office has also re- not to mention that they can harm birds the idea of what to do with food waste: I placed plastic straws with the paper ones. and animals. I’m happy that she pays give it to my relatives who feed it to their Another experimental project requiring attention to what I’m saying. She never hens. I realise that living in an apartment further improvement is separate waste throws garbage on the ground and some- is far more problematic in this sense. My collection during the outdoor corporate times she picks up the trash someone has left. She’s got her own opinion about en- – Even before going to university I was family and I live in a house. The region- events. Only few people are ready to aban- al center recently started introducing don old habits and follow new rules. vironment, as you can see by what she’s concerned with environmental matters. garbage bins for sorted waste, which is Presently, many employees (includ- thinking about coronavirus. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk can hardly be called only drops in the bucket, but I hope for ing me) work from home. As such, we n By Elena Gurshal

protecting her children. Therefore, we decided not to push our luck and shortly left the area. To sum up, my two encounters with bears were equally memorable, if different in emotional intensity. Frankly Bear Stories speaking, I don’t really fancy a third one!” The Sakhalin Oblast is well-known in Russia and far beyond not only for oil, gas, salmon and Expert Opinion Timophei Zvezdov: “In the first some other special features, but also for its brown bears. In the island region, you can meet case, it was a typical encounter with these big clubfoot predators in the forest, on the seashore or by the rivers, in the fish of man and bear which could feed mills, near the landfills and – believe it or not – at the door of your own home. What is have ended in tragedy. Anna found herself alone in a place more, such encounters do not always end well. Almost every year, the media publish news of possible occurrence of bears. about people injured or killed as a result of bear attacks. Our colleagues also have experience She did not have any means of protection or bear deterrents. of meeting bears in the wild. We collected several stories about bear encounters and also In this situation, the size and comments of our expert, Timophei Zvezdov, Head of the Environmental Monitoring age of the beast do not matter. Most bears have an inborn fear and Biodiversity Conservation Subdivision. of man and will try to avoid meeting with people. What we must remember is that bears often use paths along rivers. story one hill so quickly. Later I was explained that, most likely, it was They can be resting or eating prey just a few metres from a Anna Nekrasova, Specialist of a young animal for whom our encounter was as shocking as trail. The ripple of flowing water drowns out all sounds at the Analytical Subdivision: “I it was for me. a large distance, which increases the risk of an unwanted first met with a bear eight years I think this is what saved me then. If it had been an adult encounter. When travelling in such areas, it is necessary to ago. It happened in summer, bear, the story could have been much sadder. stay in a tight group, have means of bear deterrence, and during a fishing trip with My second encounter with a bear occurred quite produce as much noise as possible. my friends and relatives. We recently – at the beginning of this summer. My friend and I made camp in the vicinity of decided to go to the seashore near Prigorodnoye production Useful Tip Pyatirechye village. I decided complex in the evening after work. When we arrived, we Keep in mind: in case of a random encounter with a bear, your that it was not interesting to fish chilled out on the beach for some time, but then it started life and, probably, the life of the bear depend on your actions. alongside with men, since they to rain and the other people began to gather their things, When visiting places with possible presence of bears, having would catch all fish and nothing preparing to leave. a set of bear deterrents is an absolute necessity. Move only in would be left for me, so I went up the river bank. For some When we were packing our things, without much hurry, groups and never stay or walk around alone! reason, I thought there were more fish up there. I am not we heard someone shouting that there were bears nearby and sure whether it was really so, but the nook I eventually that everyone had better leave as soon as possible. Honestly, In the second case described, we can see a fairly typical found was nice – cosy and quiet. we did not pay much attention to the warning – we thought situation when bears come out into areas which attract The sound of the rippling water was relaxing; I was it was just a joke. Could there be any bears in such a crowded them with the smell of food or where animals are fed by fishing, enjoying the process immensely, and everything place? So we calmly got into the car, drove off and suddenly compassionate people. In such cases, bears can quickly lose went well until I noticed a bear on the other bank of the saw three cubs on the road near a bus stop. There were a lot fear of humans and become a serious threat, even for people river. The peace I had felt a minute before was gone in a of vehicles there, and people started shooting videos of the in cars. How can you avoid danger? My advice is simple: flash. Instead, I was seized with panic. animals. I could not resist doing the same, either, and made when on a hike or a picnic, do not leave food or garbage on Of course, I knew the rules of behaviour when meeting two recordings from the car. By the way, they can be seen on the ground; put food in airtight containers; should a bear a bear, but in the real situation all this theoretic knowledge the Internet now. appear at the campsite, leave the area immediately.” vanished from my mind. My fishing rod fell out of my hands Local residents who were nearby said that the cubs had P. S. Dear readers, we are sure that you have many more and I started running away, screaming at the top of my voice. been seen in the area for two days already and did not seem stories about your encounters with bears and other wild When the bear (which, incidentally, was not very to be afraid of people. The meeting with the cubs did not animals. If you are willing to share them, please e-mail to big) heard my scream, it stood up on its hind legs, then frighten me much, but, to tell you the truth, I was anxious [email protected]. unexpectedly turned around and ran away. Never before to avoid coming face to face with the mother bear. I know n By Pavel Ryabchikov had I seen anyone climbing a fairly steep slope of a volcanic for a fact that nothing is more dangerous than a mother To be continued… 20 august 2020

survey case of emergency is very short and includes they need most of all and what information 500 Calls to a Friend only documents, hygiene items, medicines, they lack. The purpose of this mini-survey- and means of communication. ing is to optimise the amount of information The employee survey dedicated to the quality of information sharing Our advice to everyone who is going to provided. on the company’s anti-coronavirus efforts – both the process and the rotational shift is as follows: read the In conclusion, we invite you to call us brochure for TAF residents carefully before any time. We will do our best to help you! information content – was completed at Sakhalin Energy almost three leaving for the shift. This will save you much months ago, in mid-May. misunderstanding later on. The majority of the calls are in the grey The hotline operators get help from many The survey summary, as well as information Governor on measures to combat the coro- area in both senses. As it was mentioned people in answering the callers’ questions. about its individual sections, are published navirus are highlighted in grey; questions above, the grey colour is used in our log Many questions are passed on to the on the external and intranet websites of the related to the stay of personnel in the tem- to mark questions about the procedure for Corporate Health Section, the Logistics company. Both websites are updated regu- porary accommodation facilities are marked entering the Sakhalin Oblast. Everyone has Group, the Human Resources Directorate, larly based on constant feedback. in green; questions about medical care and noticed that the regulations have changed and (most often) the coordinators at the Today we will focus on the dedicated COVID-19 testing – in orange, and so on. several times since March. The especially Temporary Accommodation Facilities, who telephone line, which can be used in case As a result, the call log looks like a relevant topic for people who still take a risk take appropriate action. you have any questions. The hotline num- multi-coloured zebra crossing. The colour of going on vacation is what rules apply to ber is +7 (914) 759 47 11. The line is multi- marking helps us to see immediately what those who arrive in the territory of the re- channel, and the calls are processed by sev- topic was especially relevant and when, and gion. eral Corporate Affairs employees on duty, what areas are of special concern. Apart from questions, there are com- so you can reach the number any time from ments and suggestions. At the beginning of any place. the quarantine, many of them concerned You can find a link to the hotline, as an COVID-19 test laboratories in Yuzhno- food in the TAFs, as the menu was being information channel on any issue related to Sakhalinsk: compiled and finalised. One of the topics Sakhalin Energy’s anti-coronavirus efforts, Invitro, tel. 60 53 33; that we received very emotional feedback Hemotest, tel. 24 71 00; in each of the statements from the General on was the requirement for personnel work- Meddiagnostika, tel. 77 01 22. Coordinating Committee, on the compa- ing in the territory of the Zima Highland ny’s websites and in other information re- Residential Complex to undergo testing for sources. A lot of calls are received from Sakhalin COVID-19, imposed in June. Being tested Some days there are 15 or more calls. By Energy employees who are staying at Tem- every two weeks is a nuisance indeed, but the end of July, the hotline operators had porary Accommodation Facilities (TAFs) these precautions were dictated by the epi- received a total of over 500 calls. The num- for a 14-day isolation period before going demiological situation on the island. ber of answers, however, is much higher, as to work at the production facilities. In most Not only do the hotline operators re- there could be several questions for one call. cases, they ask whether care packages are al- ceive feedback and answer questions – they All enquiries are recorded in the call lowed. So, the rules are very strict there, and also ask questions to callers. In contrast to log and are colour-coded depending on the it is prohibited to take anything either from incoming calls, our mini-survey only ap- topic they relate to. For example, calls con- or to the temporary occupants of the rooms. plies to TAF residents. We ask them only cerning the decrees of the Sakhalin Oblast The list of things that can be transferred in two questions: what information resources +7 (914) 759 47 11 hotline “coloured zebra crossing”

sport Victor Usov, a coach, made a considerable contribution to arranging and holding the tournament. He provided consul- Cure for Blues tation to the contestants, helped them to distribute the load The Ready for Labour and Production (RLP) sports tournament, held at the Prigorodnoye properly when using sports equipment, and to keep to the as- signed diet. production complex, has come to an end. The tournament started on 1 June “It was an amazing experience,” Victor says, “At the begin- and finished on 11 July. ning of the tournament, we were afraid that many participants would drop out long before the finals. Though, the contestants According to the organisers, the tournament was aimed at con- coach top models and pop stars who are constantly trying to became more and more enthusiastic and encouraged each oth- tributing to several objectives: to improve sports endurance of lose weight. er, trying to surpass their opponents and themselves. By the employees, to encourage them to take more exercise, and to The participants in sports competitions also set a number way, what do you think of Nurzhan’s victory? 132 push-ups! help them lose extra weight. Since the initiative was aimed at of records. Nurzhan Duisenbai, an employee of Cape Indus- That was incredible!” Under normal conditions, the Ready for Labour and Pro- promoting the healthy lifestyle and creating a favourable psy- trial Services (Sakhalin), could have got in the Prigorodnoye chological climate in the team, the company readily supported duction tournament would have been considered an ordinary Guinness Book, if there was one: he did 132 push-ups! It was competition. Given the present-day situation, it can be regard- it. Arrangements were promptly made for the delivery of exer- he who won the sports part of the tournament, having scored cise machines and gymnastics equipment to the gyms in the ed as a successful example of coping with the challenges of the 1,053.7 points in different events. Igor Lim from Sakhalin pandemic. It was a sort of cure for blues, a boost for a new Yunona rotational shift camp, which made it possible to hold a Energy won the second prize (986.1 points), and Nurzhan’s working day. proper tournament. colleague Bekarys Mildabekov was the third (913.75 points). n By Elena Gurshal It was attended by about fifty employees of the Prigorod- noye production complex – representatives of both Sakhalin Energy and contractors. The sports part of the tournament included various events: running on a treadmill, exercising on a stationary bike, doing push-ups on the bars, floor push- ups, flexibility exercises, strengthening the abdomen muscles, and pulling up on the bar. For each stage, competitors were awarded points, which were summed up at the end of the tournament. Those who had decided to lose weight faced a challenging task, since the weekly weighing did not allow for compromises: if they lost less than 1,000 g by the end of the week, they would be expelled from the tournament. Those 17 people who took part in this competition did not disappoint their supporters: collectively, they lost more than 127 kilogrammes! One of the contestants lost 12.5 kg during the tournament, so now he can 21 august 2020

society The Harbingers In the Global of Digital Care Agenda Care can be rendered in different ways. According to Seneca, a Roman philosopher, care benefits Sakhalin Energy’s social and environmental projects were included in the first a person even if it is provided in the most unusual Russian Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the Sustainable way. This can also be said about the digital care which Development Agenda until 2030. children attending three establishments on the island On 14 July, Maxim Reshetnikov, the Head will feel from now on thanks to Sakhalin Energy. of the Russian Ministry of Economic De- velopment presented overview at the Unit- Their projects were announced the winners ed Nations High-level Political Forum on of a special grant competition* launched by the Sustainable Development in New York. “We company to mitigate the adverse effects of the have tried to show the best Russian solutions that we are ready to share with our partners coronavirus pandemic. Anna Lygina, Senior Specialist around the world,” mentioned the Minister of the Social Performance Subdivision, tells us about in his report. The document was drafted under the gen- the competition and the projects in detail. eral coordination of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Fed- – In early June, we announced the eration together with the Ministry of Eco- start of the Digital Transformation nomic Development, Ministry of Foreign of Educational and Social Services Affairs, Rosstat (Russian Federal State Sta- grant competition, and a month tistics Service) and other federal authorities later we selected the first winners. and organisations concerned. Represent- All of them had presented useful atives of business entities contributed and projects aimed at helping their shared their practices and initiatives related establishments make a successful to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). transition to remote work, which This resulted in the publication of more than is a prime necessity in the pres- 40 successful cases of Russian enterprises, ent-day conditions. including the Sakhalin Energy practice. In According to experts, includ- ing the representatives of different particular, the experts noted the cooperation on constant communication be- non-commercial organisations with indigenous peoples, including the ap- tween the teacher and the student, and government bodies, as well plication of the principle of free, prior and which is of paramount importance the company employees, the Re- informed consent as contained in the UN in the learning process. Equipping mote Access Rehabilitation pro- Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous four mini-studios will help teach- The sustainable development goals were adopt- ject, developed and presented by Peoples and the Biodiversity Action Plan. ers create high-quality video con- ed by all UN member states in September 2015 as the Preodoleniye Centre, was one In addition, the section “The Role of Business tent for classes and consultations. a world agenda until 2030, aimed at improving the of the best. The project provides in Achieving SDGs” notes the company’s participa- The Ogonek Social Rehabil- well-being and prosperity of all the world population for developing a web-resource that tion in the UN international initiative for business itation Centre for Minors partic- and protecting our planet. Sakhalin Energy’s activi- will help patients of the institu- – Sakhalin Energy has a high status of sustainable ipated in the grant competition ties are included in this agenda – the company aims tion to continue sessions without corporate leadership in the UN Global Compact on attending the centre in person, so with the Path to New Opportu- its efforts at respect for human rights issues in the a par with 34 other international companies. as not to interrupt the course of nities project. After the project In the Russian Federation, the demonstration of areas of operation (engagement with the communi- rehabilitation treatment. Thanks is launched, a mobile computer progress towards SDGs has been adopted as a na- ty, sustainable development partnerships, complaint to the re-equipment of specialists’ classroom will be created in the tionwide commitment. Such reviews shall include resolution), compliance with occupational safety workplaces, they will have an op- institution. This will allow its stu- the opinions of indigenous peoples, civil society, and health standards, biodiversity conservation, etc. portunity to expand remote com- dents to continue their studies and the private sector and other parties concerned in The company’s social and environmental practice munication channels. In addition, also participate in on-line contests accordance with national circumstances, strategies proves that achieving SDGs is one of the priorities creation of personal accounts in- and competitions outside their comprehensive secondary school and priorities. Since 2016, more than 160 countries for Sakhalin Energy. tegrated with the Rehabilitation which they cannot attend during have submitted them. n By Marina Moruga Automated Information System (AIS) – an information and an- the rehabilitation course at the alytical system that has already centre. been introduced in the Preodo- Sakhalin Energy will provide leniye Centre – will allow its staff financing for the implementation to interact with children with disa- of the projects, provided that they bilities and their parents remotely. are properly finalised, taking into Another winning project – account the experts’ recommen- Digital Care – is aimed at organ- dations and comments. The grant ising remote work with children pool for one project is 600 thou- suffering from recurrent illnesses sand roubles. The winners will be and children with disabilities who able to start implementing their receive instruction at home. The initiatives as early as a few weeks project was developed by the teach- after the announcement of the re- ing staff of the Dachnoye village sults. We hope that three winning school whose students will now institutions – our harbingers – be able to study remotely and also will begin the new academic year participate in on-line conferences. in September working in a new What is more, the village school format. In the meantime, the grant will have an opportunity to orga- competition continues: applica- nise additional classes and con- tions will be accepted in July, Au- sultations for gifted children. The gust, and September. Winners will most important thing about this be selected every month, so digital initiative is that its authors did not care will grow exponentially! follow the line of least resistance * For information about the and choose the solution when stu- conditions of participating in the dents are supposed to learn inde- grant competition, go to the ‘At- pendently, visiting various Russian tention, Competition!’ section at websites by using their computers. www.fondenergy.ru. On the contrary, the emphasis is n By Marina Semitko 22 august 2020

contest The World through a Lens Photo Contest

This year’s ‘The World through a Lens’ annual photo contest is drawing to an end. More the 220 entries have been submitted for the contest. We thank all participants for their efforts and enthusiasm. Soon you all will be invited to participate in voting for the Peo- ple’s Choice Award. It will be held from 5 to 15 August in on- line format. Each supporter will have an opportunity to vote for their favourite contest entry and choose a winner in each category. You can view all pictures in the photo contest gallery on the company’s internal website. The winners and laureates of the contest will be determined by a panel of professional photographers. By voting, they will determine winners in eleven categories (the key ones are divid- ed into sub-categories, “amateur” and “professional”). The award ceremony will be held in early September. Tra- ditionally, it will be dedicated to the Oil and Gas Workers’ Day which is celebrated in Russia on the first Sunday of autumn. The winners of the photo contest will receive commem- orative diplomas and prizes. There will be plenty of pleasant surprises for other participants, too. We hope that all our plans come true. We will inform you about the time, place, and pro- cedure of the ceremony later. The contest results will be published in the next issue of the Vesti newsletter. Dandelion Disinfection of Sfera BC We wish good luck to all participants! n By Yulia Vatutina

Lights Mistress of the Burrow PA-B in the Rays of Icy Dawn Coronatales: Ovations to the Winners

Coronatales corporate contest is closed and it is with great pleasure Welcome the winners: that we announce the results. First of all, millions of thanks to all Olga Kuskova, Best Work in the Mythological Battle Genre the participants! The video is available via link. We are also grateful Elizaveta Moreva, Best Computer Graphics Hemish Kumar, Best Poem in English to the fans who took a minute to vote. Mikhail Efremov (2ps), Best Educational Cartoon Tatiana Voropay, Best Bio-Art The most active were the fans of Olga БЛАГОДАРИМ ЗА УЧАСТИЕ В КОНКУРСЕ! Angelina Voropay (2ps), Best Island Story Kuskova, Alexander Lukyanov, Sarah and Gleb Yusipov, Best Adventure Novel Sahil Kiran, as well of Elizaveta Moreva. ПРОДОЛЖЕНИЕ СЛЕДУЕТ… Daria Nikulina, Best Abstraction They showed solidarity and paved them Vasilisa Kuznetsova, Best Romantic Graphic Story the way to the Audience Favourite Prize. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATION! Liza Putro, Best Graphics in Support of Heroes Uneasy choice that fell on the shoul- TO BE CONTINUED… Konstantin Kokorin, Olga Navalikhina, Andrey Nikolenko, Tatiana Derivedmid (2 ps), ders of the organising committee and con- Most Original Genre test jury turned out to be the most difficult Anna Gorlancheva (2 ps), Best Artistic Solution and the simplest at the same time. On the artist, Candidate of Science, art historian, Daria Furs, Ekaterina Schapova, Maria Nikolayeva, Best Interpretation of the Classics one hand, the biggest challenge was the Vladivostok) – presented at the ceremony Angelina Tsarkova, Best Mythical Sketch diversity of participants to judge them by and announced the winners. Fyodor Ryabchikov, Best Fairytale Interpretation the same criteria. On the other hand, the Thanks again for this festival of crea- Sofia Ryabchikova, Best Insightful Tale unique character of every participant be- tivity and imagination power. You gave us Kristina Olovyanishnikova, Most Touching Drawing came the defining for the final verdict, i.e. another chance to see that we are a super Victoria Lagoykina, Best Glance everybody wins in his own nomination. team! Natalia Lagoykina, Best Sententious Poem The award ceremony was held online. Though the winners were announced Darina and Yaroslav Ganets, Best Knights Tale About 30 participants took part in it. The just recently, the soul requires something Sarah and Sahil Kiran, Best Super Power Story organising committee and the invited new and creative. If you have ideas, what Boris Novikov, Best Post-Modern Prose guests – Anastasia Makarenko (a journal- could be the theme of the next corporate Egor Solovey and his family members (2 ps), Best Coronavirus Chronicle ist, blogger, storyteller, Head of Swiss Art contest, send your suggestions on the Elena Serzhanina, Best Philosophical Work Council Prohelvetia Moscow) and Pavel functional e-mail [email protected]. Alexander Lukyanov, Best Victorious Work Shugurov (the famous Russia Far East n By Alyona Olovyanishnikova 23 august 2020 One Hundred and Fifty Steps in History anniversary Our company’s production assets are not only connected by the Transsakhalin pipeline system, but by an invisible thread stretching between the hearts of everyone involved in Sakhalin-2 project. Today we are working on the future of a colossal O&G project, honoring our past and our common history. Vesti newsletter is a modern book of chronicle, whose pages offer a review of the most significant events. This issue of Vesti is its 150 th, meaning that our read- digital version of the newspaper is available as well, ers have received a fresh issue one hundred and fifty since it is more convenient for some employees of the times (if counting consecutively). Is this a large or a company (although a reader survey shows that they are small number? It’s really nothing for a regular news- not ready to abandon printed form completely). paper with more than 300 issues per year, however, for The editors’ first and foremost informal objective a monthly corporate issue, with every section discuss- is to gain the readers’ trust, to make them see Vesti ing routine and extraordinary events, victories and de- as “their” press. Speaking about the editors, we have feats, assets and the people of the Sakhalin-2 project, probably the largest staff among international media. 150 issues is truly a landmark. As bureaucrats would say, the staff is wildly oversized. Journalists at major publishing houses sometimes However, we are proud of this fact. Not only do col- condescendingly regard corporate media as something leagues form Corporate Affairs work on the issue, but akin to a school bulletin. Sometimes this is justified, also more than 2000 employees of Sakhalin Energy. but not in the case of Sakhalin Energy’s Vesti. We offer You are not only the providers of information, but readers a new concept of corporate press focused on also journalists, photographers, organizers of impor- current matters, reviews of business practices, studies tant events, and central figures of publications. It is of specialists’ expertise, assessments of efficiency of impossible to imagine Vesti without your enthusiastic various financial, administrative, and marketing tools participation. in the operation of Sakhalin Energy. We sincerely thank everyone making every issue of There’s no rest for Vesti. However poetic it may Vesti possible: authors, editors, proofreaders, layout sound, it is actually full of day-to-dayness. The first designers, photographers, pressmen, translators and issues comprised four A3 pages. Now, 20 pages are not all the colleagues who ensure that every newsletter is After all, it’s not without reason that our informal enough! Sometimes, to cover the events that are most delivered to the remote industrial facilities of the pro- motto is “We make Vesti together!” significant for the company, we need 24 pages! The ject. n Editors office of Sakhalin Energy Vesti newsletter

Svetlana Savateeva, special correspondent Recognition of the INTERFAX information agency I would like to congratulate the newspaper on its anniversary issue! It is always a pleasure to open it knowing that you will find some interesting news, improve your knowledge of technology by Professionals and other aspects of the work of such a multi-faceted company, and will be able to communicate with news makers on a higher Do you know many corporate newspapers whose regular journalists level of understanding, or find some interesting historical facts. write breaking news and flashes... The newspaper’s staff directs its attention to all aspects of the life of the company employees, ranging from professional growth to This definition is especially important happy that the edition’s news arouses the creating a harmonious inner world. When you read the newspaper, you develop a feeling for the creators of any newspaper, and genuine interest of not only our readers for the company’s inner ‘cosmos’ and start feeling happy for the employees who are our edition is not an exception. Over the but also the fellow journalists from the lucky to work for Sakhalin Energy. course of its existence, Vesti has gone leading media outlets in Russia and through a period of formation and we are abroad.

Alexey Novikov, deputy editor in chief Dina Khrennikova, special correspondent of the financial and economic information service, of the Bloomberg information agency INTERFAX information agency The corporate issue of Sakhalin Energy’s Vesti is a source of reg- Do you know many corporate newspapers whose regular jour- ular exclusive information about the company’s operations. My nalists write breaking news and flashes? There are very few such colleagues from Bloomberg News and myself keep track of every newspapers in Gazprom, Sakhalin Energy’s Vesti being one of issue of the newspaper in order to inform its readers of the turn- such examples. around plans, expansion of the LNG deliveries, and the compa- You should not delay getting acquainted with each new issue ny’s work during the pandemic. of the newspaper until later because it tells the market moving news, and because it is competent and frank. We see the high level of openness professed by the editorial staff (while understand- ing that corporate press is corporate press). And how the company find opportunities in difficult situations because the editorial office does not avoid difficult topics (which Vitaly Sokolov, correspondent of the ENERGY INTELLIGENCE some of its Gazprom’s ‘sisters’ would consider forbidden). international information and analytical group We do not feel any difference between the interests of business press and the corpo- I read Vesti not only to learn breaking news about the Sakhalin-2 rate audience. This is because both are genuinely interested in efficiency and profita- project first-hand, but also to better understand how Sakhalin bility. This is a newspaper of people who professionally engage in real creativity while Energy sees itself in the ever-changing world and how it responds arranging and optimising various business processes and maximising the revenues of the to new challenges. This is especially true in 2020. It is with special shareholders. It is evident from the newspaper how those people love their work, their interest that I read interviews with the сompany’s specialists that island, and their country. explain the nitty-gritty of the project and LNG exports, including We would like to thank the multinational alliance of the project’s shareholders for the the production processes and marketing strategies. corporate culture they created and to fervently wish other Gazprom group members to be inspired by those practices. n Prepared by Olga Moreva

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. Moscow Representative Office: Dzerzhinskogo str., 35, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693020, Russia Novinskiy, 31, Moscow, Russia, 123242 Tel. + 7 (4242) 66 2000 Tel. +7 (495) 956 1750 Е-mail: [email protected] Web-site: www.sakhalinenergy.com Desing by OAO Sakhalin Oblast Printing Office