Petrobras buys new supercomputers – Hardware

For the past four years, Petrobras has been the Latin American champion in the ranking of Top500.orgwhich evaluates the largest supercomputers in the world.

Now, the company plans to reinforce its technology park with five new supercomputers, investing a total of R$500 million. One of these machines, with processing power comparable to around 10 million cell phones and 200 thousand notebooks, will cost R$435 million.

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With this purchase, Petrobras hopes to maintain its leadership in computing capacity and eco-efficiency. The assembly of the machines will begin this year and they will be operational in 2025.

New supercomputers to be used for seismic processing

“The purchase of new supercomputers is strategic for us to maintain our technological leadership in the oil and gas sector, especially in subsurface seismic imaging,” says Sylvia Anjos, Petrobras’ Director of Exploration and Production. “With this updated equipment, we will be able to expand our seismic processing projects using the most advanced technologies.“

Petrobras geophysicists will use the new HPC to process raw seismic data and transform it into detailed images of the subsurface, creating highly accurate 3D maps of rock layers. This is crucial for finding potential oil and gas reservoirs.

Sylvia highlights that the renewal and expansion of processing capacity will bring faster and more accurate results, helping with the challenges of operating in ultra-deep waters and new exploratory areas, such as pre-salt and the Equatorial Margin.

“More detailed images help us to more accurately identify potential areas, reduce exploration risks and improve reservoir simulation, leading to more efficient production,” adds Clarice Coppetti, Director of Corporate Affairs. “Being among the leaders in computing capacity allows you to compete globally, attract partnerships and business opportunities.”

Supercomputer details

The upgrade of the supercomputers is in line with the company’s strategy, as per the 2024-28 Strategic Plan. The new HPC will weigh around 50 tons and be 50 meters long. It will be capable of performing around 73 petaflops (PFlops), where a petaflop equals one quadrillion operations per second. When ready, it will replace the Phoenix, Atlas and Dragon HPCs.

This new supercomputer will be the most eco-efficient in Latin America, optimized for high performance with low energy consumption. Sustainability was considered from the beginning of the project, including the choice of efficient technologies and the design of the room that will house the machine, designed to minimize energy use.

The five new supercomputers are from Lenovo, the company that won the bid.