HPC from A-Z (part 15) - O

O is for Oil and Gas

As demand continues to soar, the suppliers of our natural oil and gas resources are under increasing amounts of pressure to deliver product and keep prices low – these are basic economic principles, after all. But less well-known is the role which HPC is playing to ease the burden on companies involved in this market.

The applications of HPC are diverse and virtually limitless. Analytics, simulation, modelling, seismic imaging – all of these help to extend life of oilfields, identify new submarine oilfields, achieve drastic time reductions in drilling, and make real-time and future-looking calculations about risk.

At Platform Computing we’ve experienced the challenges oil and gas companies are facing first hand through our work with leading companies in this industry, including Statoil Hydro and other oil field services providers and energy giants. For example, a top five global energy company turned to us recently to help achieve cuts in manufacturing and capital costs. Our analysis revealed that they could achieve this with a simple cluster management solution that is easy to use and administer without a dedicated IT admin resources.

As exploration and extraction takes companies to ever more extreme and challenging environments, HPC can be the difference between good and bad decision making... and, ultimately, how much profit the oil giants can turn.