Resource Conservation as the Main Factor in Increasing the Resource Efficiency of Russian Gas Companies

The complex modern trends in the growth of the consumption of raw hydrocarbon materials around the world, and as a consequence their accelerated depletion, have forced oil and gas industry enterprises to identify progressive resource-saving methods and technologies. Such methods could enable the environmental and technological effects of production processes to be achieved under conditions of sustainable economic development and with a policy of balanced consumption and resource provision. This research is devoted to the improvement of the scientific and methodological foundations and the development of predictive and analytical tools for assessing the efficiency of resource use in gas industry enterprises. With the application of the proposed instruments, we carry out simulation modeling of the efficiency of natural gas production, processing and pipeline transportation companies. In the course of a comparative analysis of the efficiency indicators for Russian gas companies, a resource-efficient variant of their development is selected and the most promising business projects are identified. Three branch companies of the Russian gas industry are accepted as the objects of the research in this study. As a result of the conducted approbation process, it is revealed that the existing practice of assessing consumption and resource provision in companies in the industry, as well as the use of methods and approaches to resource conservation, does not have a single and complex character. The methodology proposed by the authors makes it possible to approach industry companies with the same set of indicators, systematize and calculate them, identify existing unused reserves for resource conservation and identify promising resource-efficient projects.