OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2012. The Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO conducted an open programme for the top management of the major Russian oil and gas companies from June 11 till June 15, 2012. The programme developed in cooperation with the MIT Sloan School of Management was initiated and supported by BP. Titled “Cooperation in large projects”, this annual programme is based on successful experience of the BP Project Academy at MIT and held by the SKOLKOVO business school for the fourth time.

“The programme is designed to address the pressing issues of the oil & gas industry,” comments Vyacheslav Grigoriev, head of the programme who is an expert working with the oil and gas sector clients at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO. “Today it becomes increasingly difficult for an individual company to explore new challenging fields on its own. The perspectives of the industry development begin to largely depend on the efficiency of cooperation among its key players. We also observe that more and more national and regional companies are entering international environment where effective partner interactions are crucial for sustainable growth.”

The representatives of several large corporations such as Gazprom, Gazprom neft, LUKOIL, NK ALLIANCE, SIBUR, TNK- BP, Transneft, Shell, and employees of the branch ministries participated in the programme this year.

While studying they had to identify the issues which arise in project work where several partners are involved, find practical solutions and explore best corporate practices which demonstrate how companies can deal effectively with strategic challenges and particular tasks. Moreover, they got a chance to network and create a platform for development of future collaboration.

In conclusion Lev Freinkman, Senior Economist at BP Russia, BP manager for the joint (BP-MIT-SKOLKOVO) industry program, said “The programme provided its participants with the opportunity to learn best practices of implementing large joint projects in the intercultural environment. I am sure this knowledge could be applied by Russian oil and gas companies in project planning and the development of their strategies for international cooperation”.