Petrobras and its partners Shell, Total, CNPC, CNOOC and PPSA as manager of the Libra Consortium's Production Sharing Agreement invested R $ 63 million in expanding the processing capacity of Santos Dumont supercomputer, which now leads the ranking. of the highest performing computers in Latin America. The device will be able to process up to 4 quadrillion mathematical operations per second (or 4 PFlops), equivalent to the computational power generated by 4 million typical laptops. The technology will be applied in oil and gas exploration and production research and in the analysis of large data masses (geophysical, geological and engineering) that demand high computational capacity for scientific calculations, based on artificial intelligence and deep learning tools.

The emphasis will be on studies in the areas of seismic processing and reservoir simulation, as well as the optimization of well drilling and production projects - in the Santos Basin pre-salt and especially in the Mero field. The computational power of the machine will reduce from 10 to 50 times the seismic processing time, allowing to reduce geological uncertainties and increase the exploratory success rate - which is the identification of commercially viable oil after drilling a well. With this, the expectation is to contribute not only to accelerate projects, but also to increase the accuracy of activities and operational safety.

Installed at the National Laboratory of Scientific Computing (LNCC) in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro State, Santos Dumont may be used by Petrobras, the Libra Consortium's technology partners and the entire Brazilian scientific community. The inauguration ceremony of the supercomputer expansion, on Monday (25/11), was attended by the acting Executive Manager of Cenpes, Juliano Dantas, the Minister of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications, astronaut Marcos Pontes, besides the LNCC Director, Professor Augusto Gadelha, Atos President Nelson Campelo, and Petrópolis Mayor Bernardo Rossi.

“Santos Dumont is a watershed for Petrobras, its partners and the Brazilian scientific community, as it has the ability to analyze a huge amount of data at a much faster and much more accurate pace. We are committed to investing more and more in digital transformation technologies that deliver value and bring substantial return to our oil and gas exploration and production activities, ”said Cenpes Acting Executive Manager Juliano Dantas.

With the expansion, Santos Dumont becomes the largest computer in processing capacity in Latin America. The expansion of the supercomputer was financially supported by revenues of 1% of the gross value of Mero Field's annual oil production. The allocation of resources for research and development activities is part of the obligations of the oil production sharing contract.

The Mero field is operated by the Libra Consortium and led by Petrobras - with a 40% stake - in partnership with Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%), and CNOOC Limited (10%). . The consortium also has the participation of the state-owned company Pre-Sal Petróleo (PPSA), which plays the role of manager of this contract.