Closure Interview, Denis Ivanov, General Director for Nabors Russia
What is your position and how long have you been in the company?
I am the General Director for Nabors Russia. I have been working for Nabors for more than 3.5 years.
How long has your company been operating in Russia?
Nabors is successfully working in Russia for almost 10 years now.
What plans and hopes do you have for expansion in the Region?
Nabors is a company with constant focus on safety and delivering efficiency and performance for our customers. As a results we do not plan to expand rapidly. Our strategy is to expand through reputation and the efficiencies of our service, and to prove our clients that we can deliver complex wells to a very high standard of drilling. We do not bid on every contract. We are here to provide expert services and technologies for Russia’s difficult and challenging wells, we are ready to support our customers needs in these areas.
How have the sanctions impacted your operations?
To some extent yes and no. Currently we do not have any operations off shore or above the arctic circle, so we can continue our services. However our legal department closely monitor any changes in the sanctions and we fully comply with all requirements domestically and internationally.
What are the competitive advantages that Nabors has over the other Drilling Contractors in Russia?
Our main advantages are; our constant safety approach to all of our operations. Inside the company we have a “Mission Zero” strategy. This policy sets the target to achieve zero incidents on our rigs. We have heavily invested in our employees training and to constantly improve the safety training we provide, our safety records and incidents.
Secondly, would be our minimum Down Time or NPT (Non Productive Time) programs. We all work hard to decrease NPT to as low as it can possible be. This is achieved by keeping our rigs well maintained and providing enough spare parts for all our rigs, which are located in remote locations. This program reduces the need of unnecessary NPT through rig or part failure.
What is the status of your fleet in Russia?
Currently Nabors Russia has 6 rigs. 4 operating, 1 is being mobilized and is Rigging up right now and 1 is stacked, waiting for next contract.
What are the main challenges facing the Drilling market in Russia and how can these be overcome?
Currently the main challenge, is of course, the oil price and the Ruble exchange rate. For Russia it’s hard to bring in highly efficient drilling technology companies who work in US Dollars on one hand, and on another, due to the falling oil price, drilling volumes have decreased globally and Russia has also been hit by this downturn. To overcome these problems Russia needs to develop its own leading drilling technologies and I think President Putin is already actioning programs in this area, but this does need a lot of time and effort.
What are your thoughts on the Russian oil and gas market through to the end of this year?
I have no doubt that oil price will recover and currency fluctuations will be stabilized. However nobody knows for sure when this will happen and I don’t think I can make any projections on the future right now.
