Environmentally sustainable policies in the petroleum sector through the lens of industry 4.0. Russians Lukoil and Gazprom: The COVID-19 crisis of 2020 vs sanctions crisis of 2022

ABSTRACT

The incomplete resource efficiency of oil and gas (O&G) companies in their imperfect corporate reporting is a relatively new topic gathering researchers' attention because of the increased importance of environmental concerns. The main aim of this article is to aid researchers in understanding the overall trends and shifts in exploring a novel sustainable development method for O&G companies and evaluating it using the example of Lukoil and Gazprom. The study uses a trend analysis method to examine the dynamics of Brent prices to recognise causal connections between the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 and the sanctions crisis of 2022 and their impact on O&G companies' sustainability. Subsequently, the article conducts a quantitative and qualitative study to combine qualitative information on pandemic models with quantitative dynamics of Brent prices and identify their relationship. This article develops a sustainable development method for O&G companies, the novel nature of which consists of digital intellectual monitoring of the sustainability of these companies in public policy practices on Industry 4.0. The article also suggests potential research directions for AI applications to automatically track intelligent data analytic capabilities. The significant findings of this study show that this approach allows for total market coverage and rational decision-making by state regulators and the attentive public. This new method offers a proprietary algorithm and recommendations for energy companies on improving corporate accounting and development of resources policy, assessed using the example of Lukoil and Gazprom.