Russian market of engineering services in oil and gas industry: fundamentals and state of the art

Today, the domestic engineering market in the Russian Federation is growing twice as fast as the global one. The field of engineering services provided in the oil and gas industry is characterized as the most dynamic with a wide range of opportunities for Russian engineering companies if they take on functions previously performed by Western EPC contractors. This article analyzes the formation of the modern market for engineering and construction services, starting from the second half of the 19th century to the present. While the first approach to such concepts as engineering and engineering services was formulated during the Soviet period with its state funding, it has been significantly transformed but over the past decades. The paper considers the specifics of Russian terminology and conceptual framework describing engineering and engineering activities. We touch upon such issue as the lack of a unified approach to the definition of engineering activities in Russian legislative practice. It is noted that the conceptual framework for engineering activities should be unified at the legislative level in the future. The dynamics of value volumes (from 2013 to 2023) as well as current and future trends in the development of the Russian market of engineering services are considered. The authors emphasize that the main drawback of Russian and foreign companies hindering the creation of a balanced domestic market for engineering services is the lack of appropriate competencies at the project management stage. It is observed that the market for engineering services directly depends on the situation in the oil and gas exploration and production market.