Digital Captain System Helps Gazprom Neft Reduce Costs of Arctic Oil Marine Logistics by 12%

The economic efficiency from the introduction of the digital Arctic logistics management system “Captain” for  2019-2020 amounted to 0.9 billion rubles. Thanks to the application of this system, the unit costs of Gazprom Neft for the export of 1 ton of Arctic oil have decreased by 12% in comparison with the years before the use of the Captain. This effect was achieved by optimizing the operating costs of tankers by choosing the best routes, saving fuel, reducing the cost of icebreaker assistance, as well as reducing downtime and maximizing oil export.

The Captain system, developed by Gazprom Neft specialists to ensure year-round uninterrupted export of Arctic oil grades, is the world’s first digital logistics management system in the harsh Arctic conditions. Captain consolidates data from all objects of the Arctic supply chain: tankers, icebreakers, oil terminals and a floating storage facility. Online, the system analyzes about 15 thousand input parameters, including telemetry from support vessels and tanker fleets, cargo tanks of a floating oil storage facility and terminals, information on weather conditions, actual and forecast ice conditions, and vessel traffic. Every 15 minutes, the system recalculates the schedule of tankers and oil shipments from the terminals, choosing the optimal solution from more than 66.5 million options.

“The Captain system has shown itself not only as a unique digital solution that works with advanced machine learning technologies, artificial intelligence and neural network algorithms, but also as one of the key elements of the complex logistics ecosystem in the Arctic. The Kapitan system has clearly proved its economic efficiency, its solutions can be applied not only by Gazprom Neft, but also by other participants working on the routes of the Northern Sea Route. “

Vadim Simdyakin Director of Logistics and Oil Operations Directorate, Gazprom Neft