**8. Conclusions**

The paper is a review and analysis of the main approaches to the introduction of digital technologies in the modern Russian oil and gas industry under Arctic conditions as well as the problems that arise in this case. The study is based on information obtained from open sources, as well as opinions and assessments provided by experts working in the Arctic and those who are becoming training specialists in this region.

The paper brings together information about the digital technologies currently used in Russian oil and gas production in the Arctic, as well as a survey of experts who are directly involved in their implementation. Based on the information provided, the significance of these technologies for improving oil exploration and production is demonstrated, as well as the main problems that prevent their large-scale application in the Arctic region.

The need to reduce the costs of operating deposits in the Far North region, due to natural, climatic and other factors, stimulates the development of the remote managemen<sup>t</sup> capabilities of production facilities and the use of unmanned technologies. The technologies that are most actively implemented in oil and gas enterprises include working with Big Data, neurotechnologies, distributed registry systems, industrial Internet of Things, robotics and sensor components, and, in the future, with the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies, which are currently used mainly for training events.

The main purpose of the digitalization of the Russian oil and gas sector is to increase the efficiency of business process management. The key constraining factors of digitalization are the lack of qualified personnel, lack of material and technical bases and increase in cyber security threats. The latter factor often requires a transformation of the entire enterprise security system. The main reason for these existing problems in the sphere of information security is, once again, the shortage of highly qualified personnel, which is especially clear in companies that operate in hard-to-reach regions, particularly in oil and gas facilities in the Arctic region.

Russian experts (especially representatives of oil and gas companies) underestimate the sanctions regimes against their country. Nevertheless, the prospects of a new package of sanctions being introduced against Russia (due to the Russia–Ukraine conflict), could, on the one hand, become an incentive for a qualitative leap in the development and implementation of Russian software, including in Arctic projects. On the other hand, what is more likely in the short and medium term is that these sanctions will become obstacles to the development of Arctic projects' due to rising costs and could even become a reason to freeze a number of them.

Another underestimated factor of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the incentives for the widespread introduction of production automation and various business processes in the oil and gas industry, as well as the development of digital communications, which is most relevant to remote Arctic territories.

To date, the leader in the digital technology development industry among Russian oil and gas companies is "Gazprom Neft" PJSC (the company has held the leading positions for the past 4 years), with "NK "Rosneft" PJSC in second place. These companies invest in the development and implementation of domestic software solutions and platforms.

According to the results of an expert survey, the most successful Russian digital projects in the Arctic are the projects by the "Gazprom Neft" PJSC: "CAPTAIN" logistics managemen<sup>t</sup> system, the use of block-chain technologies in "Prirazlomnaya" SISP, "Cognitive Geologist" IT platform, "Digital Core" self-learning program and the digital twin of the Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field (together with "NK 'Rosneft'" PJSC).

"Gazprom" PJSC continues to lag behind in the sphere of digitalization; however, given the "Gazprom" group's digital transformation strategy adopted at the end of 2021, we should expect a "breakthrough" in this direction in 2022.

The "sensitivity parameters" influencing the industry digitalization process in the Arctic region are:


For the Arctic regions, the use of renewable energy as the main source of electricity is the most optimal and promising solution. However, despite the increasing demand for renewable energy, hydrocarbon energy will dominate the market in the near future. At the same time, it is in the oil and gas sector that the economic effect of digitalization is expected to be higher, and some technologies, such as virtual reality, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, are more applicable to oil and gas enterprises.

The authors of this study plan to focus on identifying and studying in more depth the specifics of the digitalization of Russian oil and gas projects in the Arctic in the context of international sanctions in the near future.

The expert survey presented in the paper is an integral part (the first stage) of a larger study to identify the qualitative characteristics of digitalization development in the Russian extractive oil and gas industry in the Arctic and the prospects for its development. As the next stage of the study, the authors plan to conduct a large-scale survey (at least 500 respondents and an expanded list of questions) among employees of Russian oil and gas companies and representatives of scientific and educational institutions, as well as foreign specialists, which will significantly expand our understanding of the development of digitalization in the Russian oil and gas industry as a whole, particularly in Arctic oil and gas projects, as well as deepening our understanding of the ongoing digitalization processes under the current sanctions regime.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, E.S. and D.M.; methodology, E.S.; validation, A.M.; formal analysis, E.S. and A.L.; resources, R.-E.K.; writing—original draft preparation, E.S., D.M. and A.L.; writing—review and editing, A.M.; visualization, R.-E.K.; project administration, E.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study did not require ethical approval.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
