Closure Interview, Ilnar Asfandiyarov, Chief Executive Officer, ART-Osnastka

Please tell us about how ART-Osnastka began and how things have changed since the establishment of the company?
Our company was established in 2004, in Ufa. Rasim Asfandiyarov founded the company. He is a driller and a driller’s son, who graduated from the Ufa Petroleum Institute and spent more than 20 years working within the walls of BashNIPIneft. He has devoted his entire life to research and engineering work in the field of casing and cementing of oil and gas wells.

We started off, as what people now commonly call a ‘garage company,’ and we are very proud of our heritage. Our first production facility, in which we started producing casing accessories under the brand name ART-Osnastka, had an area no bigger than 20 square meters. To understand how tiny it was, just imagine a small room in an average Khrushchev-era apartment. This was our final assembly and painting shop, and the parts we used to assemble our products were ordered from third-party companies according to our designs. After a while, we purchased our first multipurpose lathe machine in 1978, back in the days of the USSR, which was happy news for everyone involved.

Today, ART-Osnastka boasts a state-of-the-art production complex furnished with advanced equipment from some of the world’s leading brands. The plant production facilities occupy about 6000 square meters of space. We have more than 55 various metalworking units, including 15 CNC machines. The company has in-house facilities for manufacturing our products, using advanced elastomeric and polymeric materials as well as an onsite laboratory for destructive and nondestructive inspection.

What solutions does ART-Osnastka offer for the oil and gas industry?
Our company is an independent Russian developer and manufacturer of casing accessories for oil and gas wells located in fields with various field condition. We are one of the leaders in our segment of the market, and one of the market’s high-tech champions in terms of our production equipment and the products we deliver.

What solutions can ART-Osnastka offer for the construction of ERD wells that have become widespread in Russia and around the world?
In fact, our company can offer its customers a multitude of solutions for optimizing run-in-hole operations in highly-inclined and horizontal-sidetrack wells, and a wealth of technology for ensuring state-of-the art casing and cementing for such wells. The most relevant I would like to mention is the HIGH SLICK™ low-friction polymer centralizers and the MOLE™ mechanically driven reamer shoes. These tools, when applied as a package, make it possible to ensure optimal RIH conditions and guaranteed placement at target depth.

As for the casing cementing process in ERD wells, I would like to draw attention to our hydraulic external casing packers and stage cementing collars produced by our company. This equipment can work in wells with any inclination angle, up to 90 degrees. We were the first Russian company to master the production of hydraulic external casing packers reinforced with steel slats. The sealing element of these packers consists of two layers of hydrocarbon resistant elastomeric material interspaced with stainless-steel slats in a reinforcing frame that runs along the entire length of the packer. This design prevents the seal’s failures when the packer is exposed to high differential pressure levels during its setting or subsequent operation. The inner, thin layer of elastomer is designed for leak-tight containment of liquids inside the packer. The reinforcing frame prevents excessive axial elongation and radial expansion of the packer’s sealing element, which could otherwise lead to its deterioration, and thus allows the packer to withstand significant pressure differences between the packed-off zones during the construction and operation of the well, as well as protects the packer from damage by the shock wave generated by perforation. The outer, thicker layer of elastomer is directly in contact with the wellbore wall, sealing the annulus.

How did the import substitution policy currently implemented in Russia affect your company?
Of course, the import substitution policy pursued by the state has had a great influence on many Russian companies that act as manufacturers of equipment for the oil and gas sector, but many does not mean all of them. A great opportunity for development was given to those companies that had something to offer their customers at the beginning of the import substitution process. Companies that possessed a strong foundation in research and engineering and could produce a strong product development portfolio, which are on a par with similar offerings of foreign manufacturers in terms of their technical characteristics and functionality, could do well. We found ourselves in that league of companies. What brought us there was our professional and dedicated attitude towards what we are producing, coupled with our experience and our daring to solve complex problems. Throughout the development history of the company, we would always set high goals for ourselves, to develop and produce products, that others either didn’t know how to do or weren’t doing well enough.

Our main competitors were some of the largest foreign manufacturers of casing accessories that held leading positions in this market segment.

Now we are actively working not only with Russian, but also with foreign oilfield services companies represented in Russia, such as Halliburton, Weatherford, Schlumberger, NOV, etc. For all of them, ART-Osnastka became the solution to the problem of finding an alternative to the expensive imported accessories they had used before without any loss of quality or functionality.

Please tell us about the company’s plans for the near future; what questions occupy your special attention, what focus areas are featured in your development plans?
As of today, our special focus is on maintaining a high quality standard for our products and streamlining our internal production processes. We are currently busy setting up an integrated quality management system, and have successfully completed the ISO 9001:2015 certification process. Preparations for API’s Specification Q1 compliance certification are in full swing. We are planning to qualify for compliance with API’s standards with respect to the equipment we produce. All of this, we believe, will help us make sure we are producing world-class quality products, which, in turn, will be instrumental in launching our company’s products in new markets both within and beyond the former Soviet Union.

Brand marketing is another focus area that is keeping us busy. We regularly participate in oil and gas exhibitions. In November this year, our company will participate in the ADIPEC 2018 exhibition that will take place in Abu Dhabi. This will be our first exhibition experience in a foreign country, and I hope we will find it very useful. We invite all interested parties to visit us at our booth.