By Pratap John/Pau, France
Total’s hydrocarbon research will be further strengthened with the installation of €60mn supercomputer Pangea, which will place the global energy major in the elite club of 10 international companies with tremendous computing power.
Designed by US-based Silicon Graphics International (SGI), Pangea will be used by the Seismic Imagery and Interpretation Department of Total’s Centre for Hydrocarbon Research at its Centre Scientifique et Technique Jean Feger (CSTJF) in Pau.
Pangea, installed at the High-performance Computing Centre, has a computing capacity of 2.3 petaflop (Pflop), which is equal to 1mn billion operations per second. In other words, Pangea’s computing capacity is equivalent to that of 27,000 office computers altogether.
Its unique computing architecture is based on over 110,000 calculation cores, 7petabyte (Pb2) storage capacity and an innovative cooling system whose circuit is integrated with the processors. Pangea’s storage capacity is the equivalent of 1.75mn DVDs, Total said.
Pangea will be used as a tool to assist decision-making in the exploration of complex geological areas and to increase the efficiency of hydrocarbon production in compliance with the safety standards and with respect for the environment.
It is primarily used to process the complex calculation codes developed by the CSTJF.
“This investment is intended to gain in time and in precision for modelling the subsurface and simulating the behaviour of reservoirs,” a Total executive told a briefing for some GCC-based journalists at Pau.
Requiring 2.8MW of electric power, the heat generated by this supercomputer is recovered, making it possible to heat the entire Scientific and Technical Centre.
Total said the group plans to double the power of its computer by 2015.
Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Total president (upstream) said, “We are proud of this leap forward in our performance which positions us in the vanguard of high technology at international level. This supercomputer – 15 times more powerful than its predecessor – has been specifically designed to meet the main technical challenges facing our industry. Its intensive computing capacity constitutes a key competitive asset that is an integral part of the Group’s bold exploration strategy.”
CSTJF is a world-class hub for technological excellence and home to the scientific expertise and R&D capabilities of Total’s Exploration & Production (E&P) division.