From Siberian Oil Fields to the Shale Revolution

Vladimir Ingerman joins Richard Lowe (The Writing King) on Leaders and Their Stories for a remarkable journey through the history of oil and gas.

A Soviet-born engineer, Vladimir traces his path from Siberian oil fields to Halliburton to the American shale revolution, sharing how he brought computers to the industry, cut drilling costs dramatically, and led teams through work that genuinely excited them.

Vladimir Ingerman is a Soviet-born oil and gas engineer and founder of Amros Corporation. His 35-year career spans Siberian oil fields, Halliburton, and the American shale revolution, where he pioneered cost-cutting and pollution-reducing drilling technology.

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DISCUSS YOUR BOOK

Full transcript of the interview follows.

Richard: Hello. I’m here with Vladimir Ingerman. And this is the leaders in their stories, podcast I’m, Richard, Lowe, the writing king and ghostwriting Guru. And today we’re going to have a fascinating discussion about oil and gas in the Soviet Union, in Russia and in the United States. So it ought to be very interesting. It’s not a subject that I’ve had a lot to do with. And, Vladimir, why don’t you introduce yourself.

From the Soviet Union to America

Vladimir Ingerman: Thank you, Richard. Thank you for inviting me. I’m Virginia Ingerman. I’m actually from Soviet Union. I hope to invest in Siberia almost 20 years in oil and gas is a time when we produced more than other part of Soviet Union, and then Halliburton invited me. It was 2 years contract in Seattle, Washington, and we love it.

And Hyderabadam laughed. What! What I did! We arranged calculation between Alibaton and Soviet companies. the open office in Moscow office in human. It was very great. Move Western technology to Soviet space, and my family loved it. And so they. Halliburton, arranged green card for me and my family. And so we’re still here. So I’m in in the United States since 1990, 35 years.

Richard: Okay. So you moved to the United States before the Soviet Union fell.

Richard: Interesting, interesting! And then you stayed here afterwards and continued working here. So you’ve been here in the United States for quite a while.

What He Misses and What He Does Not

Richard: All right. Which do you like better.

Vladimir: It’s good question, but there are. It’s difficult to say yes or no. It’s there are some better in Soviet. There are some better here.

Vladimir: It’s 1 subject, and it what used to be better in Soviet Union. It’s changed now. So I really don’t know. Is is it like it was a free education, free medical. We made the same. It’s I guess it’s not anymore sorry.

Growing Up in Siberia

Richard: I’ll bet you that one thing that’s different is it’s not so cold as it is in Siberia.

Vladimir: I grew up in Colchis. It’s similar to Texas when I’m now. But Siberia, it’s it’s 4 seasons. It’s actually nice area, very, very attractive.

Vladimir: They are saying. It’s it’s no bad weather. There are bad clothes. so you should just know how to what clothes do you see.

Richard: Interesting, interesting. Now Siberia has You said it has 4 seasons, one of those seasons it has. It’s iced over, and then it has permafrost, and then it’s good weather. Is that how it works?

Vladimir: Actually Siberia. It’s pretty big. I used to work in Siomon. This is the capital of Western Siberia. It’s approximately Moscow latitude. So in human. We have snow. No, let’s say, from November 2, 8, Bill. and then we have nice spring. We have good summer. We can swim on the lake, on the rivers. and then we gave you a beautiful autumn, very colorful.

Vladimir: And then, if you have a nice winter with a lot of snow like it’s flat like Texas. So I use cross country, and if I was home, because it was a lot of business trips like we can’t run 20 kilometers for cross countries.

Vladimir: Beautiful forest. So it’s it’s.

Halliburton and the Move to Houston

Richard: Okay. So you moved to the United States, worked with Halliburton. And now Halliburton is a basically hired you to do the same thing oil and gas. Is that correct?

Vladimir: That’s correct. Yeah, Aliburton. I spent 3 years with Sierra in Seattle. Then Halliburton moved me to Houston because they shut down Sierra. It was big executive mistakes. They shut down good software company. Then Dick Cheney became CEO of Hallibart and realized that it was a decision that bought landmark graphics instead of Sierra. actually change one software company to another, and it costs them around 700 million. It was in a newspaper.

Bringing Computers to Oil and Gas

Richard: Very interesting. Okay, so what what did you do when you were working with oil and gas? What kind of things did you do.

Vladimir: I was fortunate. I start in Soviet Union, and it was beginning of development, western Siberia. and it was a huge project. If you were. Actually, we discovered big mountain dozens of old fields. a lot of huge gas fields. And I was Vp of the the major serious company in oil and gas, and I was responsible for interpretation. Geophysical data.

Vladimir: Of the using computers for oil and gas. So I was on the front of this when we switch from manual job to computers. And they created software for processing log data. And this software actually captured almost 100% huge market in Western Siberia.

Vladimir: This software processed operators process and operators and research institute process more than 1 million wells. This is a real huge number 1 million.

Riding the Shale Revolution

Vladimir: Yeah. And when I start work in the United States I was lucky again, because it was beginning of shale revolution and using my experience in Soviet Union, where we have some unique data the Western Company don’t have. because Western Company, Count Bunny very accurate and it was. It’s it was a we’ll test him. Didn’t we estimate in the Soviet Union? We estimate permeability using well, testing.

Vladimir: And it’s pretty expensive because units you need to stop well for for some period of time. And it’s it’s expensive. And because of this Western company do it very occasionally, maybe just few whales for for field.

The Technology That Cut Costs Three Times Over

Vladimir: I feel 200 wells in the field. And I have all log data, all preparation results. So based on this data. I discovered some equation that below calculate permeability from open hall log data. And then, when shale revolution start in the United States, I was able to tune this equation to shale because it’s completely different field than conventional oil and gas, conventional reservoirs.

And the we created shale vision technology that actually help iterator decrease cost of development, because now that really the drill, many bed rails, and because of this. before pandemia, 90%, Us shale operator had negative cash flow.

Vladimir: So this technology load them, eliminate or avoid cost of really embed whales. and that decreased cost 2, 3 times. At the same times it decreased pollution 2, 3 times.

Vladimir: Maintain the same production, and pump, much less water propounds and different chemicals under the ground.

Vladimir: This is real great technology. But our 1st go, their membership. actually, technology applicable for any shale field across the globe. But I’m in Texas imperium based on the biggest shale. Fielding also located in Texas. So we’re trying to implemented in commercial stage in term ambition. And it’s not simple.

Because and guess people very conservative. They literally afraid new technology, the the management telling that we are looking for new technology. But it’s not quite correct. They they literally freight new technology. And there are many reasons behind this. There are statistics. That implementation of technology and load them. Guess takes 15 to 20 years.

Where AI Fits In

Richard: Wow! Well, how’s AI helping with this? Now.

Richard: How is artificial intelligence? Is it help? Is it being used at all with these shell fields? Yet.

Vladimir: No, we developed this before AI was invented.

Vladimir: AI is great, too, and I use it not for sale.

Richard: Okay, seems like that could have a big impact on profits and and create more profits.

Vladimir: Is it? How many boards there? Everybody tried to use it now? And and I guess it’s too much advertisement. AI, because, like people have opinion that if you don’t use AI, you you nothing that you can do. It’s not quite correct.

A Lifetime of Leadership

Richard: Okay? Understood? All right. so you’ve you’ve had some leadership experience with these, with the oil drilling and things. What are some of the lessons you’ve learned about leadership leading people in this kind of environment.

Vladimir: Oh, actually, I was manager almost all my life I graduated oil and Gas Institute when I was 21 and I walked 4 years in field expedition. and during the year I was promoted as a chief of log units. So I was responsible for investigation. Wells in Tajikistan different kind of whales.

And then, Nope, it was lesson that I, from my experience, the good leader, should have a good team. and you should love your team. You should love people that works with you, and for me it was some natural, but then I realized that people know that how all right them they know that I really love them.

And in this case even I was very tough requests in some job about some time and quality of job. People understand this, and never had Arthurium. So you could be tough, but people work great if they feel that you really love them and not just you love them.

It should be very good atmosphere, and your team so like in in Soviet, my team was like. So so Mike’s second family, we celebrate those days. We celebrate all holidays together. They spent a lot of time on the nature kayaking.

Vladimir: Barbecues, dancing, whatever. It was not just job so, and in this case people work extremely well because they don’t want to be bad in front of their friends. So if some of them were bad, it’s like all teamwork bad. So we were very productive. Actually, we created this system with, it was a average age of my team was 26 years.

Vladimir: And it was mostly young people, just many of them just graduated. Some of them still learn and and Cuban Industrial Institute.

Vladimir: And it was great team, and as a result was great job.

What Motivates Young Teams

Richard: Interesting, interesting. So what would you tell young leaders today about what they should do to have a motivated team.

Vladimir: No, it should be exciting project that really excite people, especially young people. because I bring the very talented young people to my team. because I told them that we need to make this digital revolution.

Vladimir: No, nobody did it before. Even some professors told at this time that you, a dreamer, it’s impossible that computer will do what human do our job so complicated it’s impossible. This this piece of metal and some lamps can do something. So it was a lot of pessimism. But at the same times.

We we knew that it’s absolutely necessary, because it was a 100,000 whales withdrew, and it was not enough people to process data for all these worlds.

Exciting Work and Afternoon Tea

Vladimir: So it should be exciting tea, exciting task, and in the team everybody should know who is doing what what he is doing or she is doing.

Vladimir: It, should we? We have a tradition like afternoon tea. And we just all team drink tea. And we talk about mostly about current current projects. Currently. And everybody knows exactly what who is doing, what what’s responsible for what? And it’s very important.

Where to Find Vladimir

Richard: Okay, okay? Well, it’s very interesting. Well, thank you for coming on the podcast. For all our listeners. This has been the leaders in their stories. Podcast and I’m Richard Lowe, the ghostwriting. the the writing king and the ghostwriting Guru. And I’ve been here with Vladimir. How can people reach you, Vladimir, if they want to get hold of you.

Vladimir: No, they just can Google. My name, Virginia Ingerman, or they can Google name of my company, Amros Corporation, a. MROS. Corporation.

Vladimir: And they will have plenty of information.

Richard: All right, all right. Well, thank you very much for appearing on the show. Appreciate it a lot.

Vladimir: Thank you. Richard.

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