Eni has launched its new HPC4 supercomputer, aiming to quadruple its computing power and make it one of the world’s most powerful industrial systems
Eni said that HPC4 has a peak performance of 18.6 Petaflops which, combined with the supercomputing system already in operation (HPC3), focus on increasing Eni’s computational peak capacity to 22.4 Petaflops.
According to the latest official Top 500 supercomputers list published in November 2017, Eni’s HPC4 is the only non-governmental and non-institutional system ranking among the top 10 most powerful systems in the world.
The HPC4 supercomputer has been launched at Eni’s Green Data Center in Ferrera Erbognone, 60km away from Milan. The Green Data Center’s supercomputers aim to provide strategic support to the company’s process of digital transformation across the entire value chain, from the exploration and development phase of oil and gas reservoirs, to the management of the big data generated in the operational phase.
The HPC4 is expected to support the execution and evolution of Eni’s 3D seismic imaging packages and advanced petroleum system modelling together with new reservoir simulation algorithms and optimisation of production plants.
Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, commented, “The investments devoted to reinforcing the supercomputing infrastructure and the developments of algorithms are a significant part of Eni’s digital transformation process. We can store and process enormous quantities of data for geophysical imaging, the modelling of oil systems and reservoirs, in addition to using predictive and cognitive computing algorithms for all our business activities.”
“These technologies will enable us, on the one hand, to accelerate and make the entire upstream process more efficient and accurate, reducing risks in the exploration phase and, at the same time, giving us a significant technological advantage, but also to increase the level of reliability, technical integrity and operability of all our productive plants, while minimising operational risks,” he added.
“Eni’s Green Data Center as well as the new HPC4 have been engineered to ensure the maximum level of energy efficiency in order to minimise CO2 emissions and operating costs,” Descalzi concluded.
