Memorandum of understanding signed with the University of Technology Malaysia
A delegation led by Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student and Alumni Affairs Ali Selamat visited KFU today.
He was accompanied by Associate Professor Mohd Ariffin Abu Hassan and Senior Lecturer Abdul Rahim Risal.
During the visit, a meeting was held with representatives of the KFU management, at which cooperation in the scientific and educational fields was discussed. On the part of Kazan University, its participants were: Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences Danis Nurgaliev, Head of the International Cooperation Development Unit Konstantin Fedotov, Deputy Director for Marketing of the Gazpromneft-KFU Scientific and Educational Center Vladislav Sudakov, and International Cooperation Officer of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies Yury Nurmeev.
The memorandum is aimed at developing research and technical cooperation. The parties also confirmed their intention to cooperate in student and academic exchange, organize joint events, and invite each other to participate in scientific discussions and conferences.
“The interaction between KFU and UTM is developing rapidly. One of the areas that we could successfully develop with UTM is in the oil and gas sector, in particular, it is related to oil production and environmental protection. Today we discussed a project for the utilization of carbon dioxide – one of the main greenhouse gases that influences the formation of the Earth’s climate. This gas can be used to enhance oil recovery – it can be used to improve the properties of viscous oil, which is present in Malaysia and Russia, including Tatarstan. I think that our cooperation will be fruitful, and the results will become the basis for our interaction in other areas,” said Dr Nurgaliev.
In the afternoon, the guests visited the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies, where, accompanied by the Deputy Director for Research Pavel Krylov and Vladislav Sudakov, they got acquainted with the laboratories of the institute. A meeting was also held at which possible options for cooperation were discussed in more detail. In addition, Dr Sudakov presented the carbon dioxide utilization technologies being developed by IGPT scientists.
“As part of the Priority 2030 program, a laboratory was created at KFU for the utilization of carbon dioxide in underground natural reservoirs, which I supervise. We deal with the issues of carbon dioxide burial in geological objects. The University of Technology Malaysia has a laboratory that solves similar problems. We decided to synchronize our research in order to be useful to each other. In addition, we found out that we can jointly engage in research of water conservation and hydrogen energy,” said Sudakov.
He noted that carbon dioxide can be utilized in another way. IGPT is developing projects for using various gases to enhance oil recovery.
“Carbon dioxide is well suited for this purpose. Dissolving in oil, it dilutes it and makes it more mobile,” Sudakov explained.
According to Ali Selamat, UTM and KFU began cooperating in 2023.
“We want to develop our cooperation, especially since we have common scientific interests. They are associated with the utilization of carbon dioxide in order to protect the environment. In addition, we would like to conduct joint research in hydrogen energy, as well as water resource management. I hope we will have a joint laboratory where we can work on these issues. Of course, the exchange of students and teachers is of no small importance for us,” Ali Selamat said in a comment to the media.
