"The Top 10 IT Projects" contest established by ComNews Group in 2009 recognizes annually the customers and executors of the most significant projects in the IT and industrial automation field, bringing innovations to the work of separate departments, government agencies, commercial customers and the country's economy in whole.

In 2018, the contest organizers focused on the best innovative projects developing digital technologies for the oil and gas industry. The purpose of the contest is to find and support the development of innovative projects in the field of IT and other digital technologies for the oil and gas industry.

Participation in the contest allowed developers, scientific organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises to become the focus of attention of the industry community. The contest accepted projects that were completed in 2017 (or their implementation key phase was completed in 2017).

The contest organizing committee accepted the applications from software developers, suppliers of digital solutions and system integrators that fulfilled a unique innovative project for any oil and gas company.

The criteria for evaluating the projects were the scalability, innovativeness or complexity of the project, its significance for the CIOs community and the industry as a whole, efficiency (improving the enterprise profitability), and transparency.

As a result of the contest, the winners were named in 10 categories. The solemn awarding of the contest laureates – customers and executors of IT projects took place on the first day of the IV federal IT forum of the oil and gas industry of Russia "Smart Oil & Gas: Digital Transformation of the Oil and Gas Industry". As expected, this year more than 500 participants attended this two-day event, including representatives of the largest Russian and some foreign oil and gas companies.

In his welcoming speech to the contest participants, the advisor to the Director General of PAO Rosseti and the jury member Dmitry Gurevich mentioned that the phrase used many times during the first day of the forum "Smart Oil & Gas: Digital Transformation of the Oil and Gas Industry" that the digital transformation is this desire to teach the business to make money on IT, refers completely to the winners of the contest. "Today we recognize the best representatives of the IT community: those who realized this idea," he said.

In the category Digital Deposit the award was given to ITPS group of companies and Lukoil group of companies for the project of implementing the automated management system of intellectual field based on the AVIST Oil & Gas integration platform, for a comprehensive solution based on integrated modeling and constraint model that enhances the operational efficiency of producing companies, increasing oil production due to higher oil recovery rates and reducing capital and operating costs. The head of ITPS group of companies Leonid Tikhomirov and the head of the customer service center of Lukoil information technology support Alexander Pruzhinin received the award. Alexander Pruzhinin noted the importance of implementing this project not just in partnership with Russian company, but also on the Russian platform.

In the category Digital Plant the winner was Exxon IT Company for the project that creates passports for infrastructure facilities. The award was given to Dmitri Suvorov, deputy director of Exxon IT.

In the category Implementation in Industrial Internet of Things Area the winner was Technotex company for developing a project of the presentation VR application "Pumping Station". The project customer was Peton Khimtek company. Denis Minnigulov, the head of the design department of Technotex, and Ildar Guzairov, the head of the oil and gas equipment department of Peton Khimtek, received the award.

In the category Cloud Solution the laureate was Laboratory of Nanosemantics company for the project on developing, adapting and setting up a virtual consultant for the Procurements section on the Gazprom neft company official website and "Procurements" mobile application. The award was given to the commercial director of the Laboratory of Nanosemantics Andrey Zolotarev, the head of the department for the effective procurement of services and works of PAO Gazprom neft Inna Yashina, and the procurement director Mikhail Arbuzov. Inna Yashina thanked the team of developers who took part in the project and expressed her confidence that this is a good start.

In the category Predictive Maintenance of Production Equipment the winner was ITCS company for the project creating a unified system for planning and monitoring the preventive maintenance of power equipment. The contest organizers gave the award to Marina Ledovskaya, project manager of ITCS company, and Pavel Bereznoy, the head of the energy department of Gazprom neft.

The contest organizing committee recognized also the merits of ITPS group in the category The Best Application for SAP HANA for the project of implementing the applications for SAP HANA in Lukoil company for automated collection of financial statements in accordance with IFRS. This decision allowed shortening the time to generate the consolidated financial statements of PAO Lukoil parent company and subsidiaries, improving the speed of reporting and its quality due to the automated data collection, verification of indicators when entering and accessing archival data. The award was received by Konstantin Efimov, director for strategic customers of the ITPS group, and Anna Staroverova, the head of the information technology support department of the business segment "Corporate Center and Other Activities" of the Lukoil Information Technology Department. Anna Staroverova stressed that it was the first project on the SAP HANA platform for Lukoil company. "It was implemented properly thanks to working together with our partner," she said.

In the category Corporate Information System the award recognized the achievements of Naumen company for the project developing a search engine IT system based on cognitive data analysis. The award was given to the director of information management systems development of Naumen company Kira Esaulova and project manager of Gazpromneft Scientific and Technical Center Evgeny Kiryanov.

In the category Asset Management and Resource Optimization the winner was Horizonty Rosta company for the project made for Gazprom Burenie (Drilling) company for marking rig equipment with RFID tags and creating regulatory information on the software platform Go-RFID for the corporate information system of equipment maintenance and repair business processes management (TOPO). The award was received by Dmitry Tokarev, the Director General of Horizonty Rosta company.

In the category Industrial Automation: Advanced Automated Process Control Systems (APC) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) the winner was Automatika-Service company for the project implemented for Gazprom neft creating an automated system for verifying data of streaming and virtual analyzers. The awards were given to Alexander Petranovsky, head of the automated process control systems information management department of Automatika-Service company, and Sergei Ovchinnikov, head of the Unit of logistics, processing and marketingcontrol systems department of Gazprom neft company.

Finally, in the category Specialized Software Solution for the Oil and Gas Industry the winner was Noyabrskneftegazsvyaz for the project on assuring sustainability in the area of "specific communications in exploration and production unit, wireless data transmission (satellite communication, radiorelay communication, wireless broadband access) and mobile voice communication (trunking and satellite communications)". The awards were given to Ruslan Gulevich, Director General of Noyabrskneftegazsvyaz company, and Nadezhda Kambarova, head of the project management department of Noyabrskneftegazsvyaz company.