Analysis of the knowledge base in the Russian oil and gas sector: Patents for inventions

Abstract

The oil and gas sector (OGS) plays a key role in the Russian economy. In the context of the growing complexity of the resource base, the formation of the knowledge economy, its stability and competitiveness will largely depend on innovative, technological development. An increasingly important development factor for the OGS is the possibility of using new knowledge and technologies: ownership of the rights to the results of intellectual activity, to technologies that allow the development of hard-to-recover resources, to extract more and more complex reserves. For the effective development of the OGS, it is necessary to maintain adequacy of the mineral resource base and the knowledge base of the OGS. This means that the generation of new, more complex knowledge must correspond to the objective complication of the resources being mastered, the development of innovative technologies. Based on the analysis of the dataset on patent activity in relation to inventions for the OGS, the key actors in this segment of innovation have been identified. These include Russian oil and gas producing companies, as well as foreign companies present in the Russian market, primarily large oil and gas field service companies. The analysis of the internal structure of the knowledge base of the OGS (in terms of patents for inventions) has shown the presence of significant risks for the development of the Russian OGS along an innovative trajectory. These risks are associated with the formation of weak prerequisites for the creation of breakthrough technologies, radical innovations, and with a high role of foreign companies.