Latin America’s leading company in computational capacity will replace the machines to keep up with competitiveness

Petrobras, the Latin American champion in the past four years according to the Top500.org ranking, which evaluates the world’s foremost High-Performance Computers (HPCs), will boost its technological park by acquiring five new supercomputers. One of the machines, capable of processing the equivalent of roughly 10 million mobile phones and 200 thousand notebooks, will cost BRL 435 million. The company expects to maintain its leadership in computational capacity and eco-efficiency through this acquisition. The machines will start being assembled this year and will become operational in 2025.

“The acquisition of new supercomputers has critical strategic importance to Petrobras as it maintains the company in the technological vanguard of the oil and gas sector concerning subsurface seismic imaging. Through this update, we can expand our seismic processing projects with state-of-the-art technology,” explains Petrobras’s Exploitation and Production Director Sylvia Anjos.

Petrobras’s geophysicists will use the New HPC to process raw seismic data and turn them into detailed subsoil images. This is like designing a 3D map of the rock layers below the surface with much more transparent and precise geological structure images, which are essential to identify possible oil and gas deposits.

According to Sylvia, the renewal and expansion of the capacity to process geophysical and geological data will enable quicker and more accurate results for the challenges to ultra-deepwater operations and new exploitation areas, such as the pre-salt layer and Equatorial Margin.

“The more detailed subsurface images allow us to more precisely identify potential areas, reduce exploitation risks, and refine the deposit behavior simulation, making for more efficient production. Ranking among the industry’s best computational capacities enables Petrobras to compete worldwide and attract partnerships and business opportunities,” adds the Corporate Affairs Director, Clarice Coppetti.

Gigantic and Ecoefficient

Renewing the supercomputers is a part of the company’s strategy to keep the technological park up-to-date, whose investments are included in the 2024-28 Strategic Plan. The gigantic HPC will weigh roughly 50 tons and measure 50 meters, considering all the parts in a straight line. The supercomputer will have approximately 73 PFlops. As per the English abbreviation, a Petaflop (PFlop) is equivalent to 1 quadrillion Flops, or operation per second. When the installation is completed, it will replace the HPCs Fênix, Atlas, and Dragão, which will be deactivated.

The new and more enormous supercomputer will be Latin America’s most ecoefficient, with impressive processing power as to the energy consumed. The supercomputer’s sustainability has been considered in its initial design and the selection of the most efficient technologies. The concern with energy use has also guided the room’s design where the machine will be installed, specifically projected to enable more energy-saving operations.

The five new supercomputers were bought from Lenovo, the bid winner.