Challenges and opportunities in organizing remote work in oil and gas corporations in the context of the «post-Сovid» economy

The text examines the experience and aspects of organizing remote work of oil and gas corporations in the context of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the high volatility of global energy markets in 2020. The purpose of the article is to comprehensively consider the challenges and opportunities for organizing remote work of various groups of personnel of an oil and gas corporation within a crisis and corporations’ adaptation mechanisms. Research results. The article reveals the main preconditions for organizing remote work of administrative personnel of oil and gas companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, identifies general trends and main difficulties and challenges that have arisen in the course of adapting business processes to remote work. At the same time, it was noted that the main difficulty for oil and gas corporations is the organization of remote work of production personnel due to the unavailability of production and technological chains and infrastructure, where the adaptation potential is very limited. In this regard, the concept of a hybrid strategy for providing remote work opportunities for employees of oil and gas corporations is proposed. This hybrid strategy involves a combination of development and improvement of currently used remote working methods for administrative personnel with large-scale investments in digitalization and automation of production processes and in human capital. Conclusions. The concept of a hybrid strategy proposed by the authors is conformed with the global trends in the development of highly automated mining, transport and processing complexes in the fuel and energy complex, up to completely deserted automated production facilities, however, of course, the implementation of such strategies is associated with high costs and forms a number of new risks, which will require synchronization with the overall strategy human resource management at the corporate level, as well as with public policy measures in the process of transition to «Industry 4.0».