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TNG-Group
TNG-Group: High-quality
service in the oil industry
Interview with the CEO of TNG-Group,
Sharipov Ian Galimovich
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TNG-Group is one of the leading geophysical companies in Russia. For the sixth time, representatives of the oil and gas companies of country have called it the best company in the traditional poll performed by the organizers of the annual NEFTEGAZSERVIS forum. Moreover, four times, including this year, the company is best in the "Seismic exploration" nomination. We talked with the CEO of TNG-Group, Ian Sharipov, about what is behind this recognition.
Ian Galimovich, in your opinion, what is the ground for such a high, and no less important, stable assessment of customers?
Everything is simple here. We strive to meet all the requirements of the customer who cares about the high quality of the material, the minimum cost of work and its performing in due time. In recent years, a culture of safe production has been added to these criteria. I think we can say even shorter - this is an assessment of our competence.

Given such major players as Rosgeologiia, Geotek, Bashneftegeofizika, our market share is 15-20 percent. The main competitive advantage is people, professionals with a capital letter. They work both in production and in exploration crews.

The second advantage is the serious investment opportunities of TNG-Group. We are a member of the TAGRAS Oilfield Service Holding. This allows taking on the largest projects. Everyone knows how hard it is to take out loans in Russia today. We do not have this problem, since we participate in projects with a clear payback.

Third is the broad geography of presence. We can participate in any projects that may appear in Russia: the group has production facilities almost everywhere. I also note the high reputation of the company with more than 65 years of market history. We do not have a single project upset by the failure to meet the deadlines. We have nothing to blush for in front of customers. Today, the market of geophysics and production seismic in Russia is highly competitive. It is not subject to sanctions, with the exception of offshore drilling technologies. But we are only striving for this level.
Have there been new types of work appeared in the assets of the company lately?
Yes, last year TNG-Group won a large tender for geophysical monitoring of 16 underground gas storages. We were engaged in such types of research for the first time. Under the new conditions, a complex of methods has been applied, including neutron and dual-probe neutron gamma-ray logging, gamma-ray logging, pulsed neutron-neutron logging. We also used barometry, high-sensitive thermometry and magnetic location of collars.

We gain experience on the shelf. We work on the coastal strip, with access to the shore and in depth. In 2019, we performed geophysical surveys of wells and vertical seismic profiling (VSP) under rolling conditions on a floating platform, which is located on the Arctic shelf.

For the first time in history, we performed seismic exploration in the transition zone in the waters of the Gulf of Ob within the Tambeyskoye field. The search for hydrocarbons in transition zones is an urgent task. Due to the specifics and numerous organizational difficulties, only a few companies undertake work in the transition zone.

Research in the transition part of the marine area has become part of a project in Yamal which is unprecedented in terms of work volume and complex by methodology. The total research area exceeds 4 thousand km2. TNG-Group mobilized a large number of personnel and equipment to perform the work. Therefore, the project, intended for three years, will be completed ahead of schedule. A number of new technologies are being applied, such as Slip-Sweep. This is the simultaneous operation of several groups of vibrators. They act on the formation, and the station separates these signals according to frequency characteristics. This allowed doubling the productivity in certain positions.

Technologies for advanced unwinding of geophones were also applied. This allows performing more work during a windless period. The pinnacle of research was the merging of the geological cube due to transition work.
How does TNG-Group plan to strengthen its position under conditions of not very high oil prices? Which regions do you consider priority?
The main thing now is to find work that brings some margin. Today, most customers are trying to save on everything. We have already said that pricing does not allow us to rely on any technical modernization. All contractors experience a huge shortage of modern equipment. To purchase equipment you need a good order price, but it isn't and you get a vicious circle. For many, this is a hopeless situation. Therefore, it is important to find a customer who sees a long-term outlook.

TNG-Group was initially created to service the Romashkinskoye field in Tatarstan. However, at the moment work on it accounts for only 10% of our total volume and they are not growing. Therefore, we were forced to look for other customers. Initially, they were from the Orenburg region, the Samara region, the Republic of Komi and Western Siberia. Today, the outpost of the company is Eastern Siberia, Yamal and the waters of the northern seas of Russia.

If in the past we specialized in regional projects with an area of 300-500 km2, today we can proudly say that in the winter season we are able to work on projects with an area of more than 1 thousand km2.

Just a very short while ago we completed the next work stage at the Tambey group of fields. To implement the project, 350 people were hired to the seismic crew. More than 100 premises of the housing and production facilities have been installed. 35 thousand channels of ground-based geophysical equipment and 10 vibro-seismic installations "Nomad" were used. In this winter season, our seismic crew performed research on an area of 1591 km2. Thus, another North test is passed.
What advanced technologies can TNG-Group offer customers today?
One of our goals is to promote the latest achievements in geophysics and to perform expensive exclusive research available to Russian customers.

For example, scientific developments as well as the material and technical resources of TNG-Universal will increase the competitiveness of company in the geophysical services market. In particular, it is planned to further introduce the modules of SKPB-120/178 drilling parameter monitoring stations, as well as the development of new AKBT modules (acoustic borehole geometry tools). In the near future, work is to be done on data interpretation software based on neural network technologies.

We continue to develop special equipment for seismic exploration and new generation of geophysical equipment. RFID Tags Competency Center will be established on the basis of the enterprise with the development of specialized software (RFID is the radio frequency identification technology in contactless control systems and payment systems).

Another high-tech project of TNG-Group is a multifunctional hardware and software complex based on drones, intended for planning and tracking seismic operations. Its creation is performed with the help of federal funding.

Promising for the company is a new type of service - processing of marine seismic data. When 25 companies are engaged in the processing of surface seismic data in Russia, the marine data processing market is represented with no more than six or seven companies performing this work. Therefore, in 2019, TNG-Group acquired advanced software and increased the capabilities of computing equipment.
We hear a lot about import substitution and digitalization in the oil and gas industry...
In 2020, TNG opens strategic projects in such areas as digitalization, process management, risk management, inventory optimization, optimization of fixed costs and automation using 1C: Occupational health. The most multifaceted of them will be digitalization, taking into account the complex digital transformation of TagraS-Holding. Business processes and information systems of TNG-Group have already been examined, a process model has been built, and business process owners have been identified. The next step will be the formation of a digitalization roadmap and the automation of business processes based on 1C software products.

More broadly, today we are on the verge of a revolution in traditional technologies of geophysical work - the era of Geophysics 4.0. In seismic exploration, this means a transition to wireless technologies using more than 100 thousand active channels. So the company will be able to offer the customer the most advanced, most effective and least costly way to explore new and further explore the remaining hydrocarbon reserves. For this, it will be necessary to raise the level of competencies and skills of the personnel.
What is being done in this direction?
A lot. In particular, rationalization and inventive activity is brought to a new level. The year 2019 has become especially fruitful for the company in this area. The current system of internal company innovations allows employees of any level to constantly develop rationalization and kaizen proposals (kaizen is a Japanese philosophy and practice of continuous improvement of processes). All this brings significant profit to the company and contributes to the growth of its competitiveness. The rationalization and inventive movement in TNG-Group received a new impetus in 2014. For six years, the company has introduced more than a thousand rationalization proposals. In 2019, a record number of 242 rationalization proposals were made. The economic effect of rationalization proposals exceeded 10 million rubles.

Our company masters the best technologies of the world, engages in high-tech, develops and implements its own equipment. The focus on scientific progress helped TNG-Group to take flagship positions in the industry. We do not intend to turn off this path.