Digital field models help specialists take informed investment decisions, and plan future asset infrastructure and hydrocarbon production volumes. Computer processing of 3D models demands analysing a multitude of variables in terms of physical, engineering and economic metrics. To which end, Gazprom Neft’s new project is utilising cluster parallel computing, in which all tasks are divided into several concurrent processes, increasing speed and efficiency in addressing them.

The computing cluster has been used successfully by specialists at Gazprom Neft’s Science and Technology Centre in preparing calculations for developing the Vyngayakhinskoye (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) and Shinginskoye fields (Tomsk Oblast). The supercomputer has demonstrated a performance of at least 16 teraflops (16 trillion floating point operations (TFLOPS) per second) in pilot testing: by way of example, this sort of capacity equates to 160 conventional computers.

Intel’s OmniPath product forms the main data-exchange network, with video cards (GPU) being used in all calculations, meaning processing speeds are increased. Using these technological innovations has made it possible to gain an advantage over most supercomputers in addressing the tasks involved in developing hydrodynamic field models.

As well as increasing speeds in developing 3D models, the Gazprom Neft computer cluster means these can be created in more detail, and more accurately, in comparison to others based on systems currently available on the market. This is an advantage in solving problems in hydrodynamic modelling, which would not be feasible using existing Russian supercomputers with similar performance capacity.

The new cluster’s computational capacity is expected to be put to use in working with fields in the Orenburg Region and Sakhalin, in the near future. Thereafter, the project is expected to be used in improving efficiency in developing Gapzrom Neft’s assets in the Arctic.

Alexei Vashkevich, Director for Technological Development, Gazprom Neft, commented: “Our company utilizes unite tools, to optimise all business processes, in order to maintain our market leadership in Russia’s oil and gas industry. We implement technologies that mean we can make informed decisions — more accurately, and faster — in developing complex reserves economically. This new computing cluster marks a major step forward in developing the company’s IT system.”

Source: gazprom-neft.com