Snapshot: Petrobras’ latest tech, AI projects

Digitization and robotization of processes, artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) are examples of leading-edge digital technologies applied to the business of federal oil giant Petrobras.

The company has focused on plenty of new solutions, mainly for its operating activities, including underwater mini-drones, low-code development, 3D printing and digital twins, as well as IoT and sensorization, 

Overall, Petrobras invested US$6.4 billion in the first six months of the year, up 12.5% year-on-year due to higher expenditure on E&P and its big pre-salt projects. 

The company plans to spend US$102bn from 2024 to 2028, some 31% more than in the previous five-year period, investments that include new digital projects and technologies.

BNamericas takes a look at the latest tech investments revealed by the company.

AI AND DATA

The federal oil giant announced two new initiatives involving the use of AI and data analysis for its internal processes.

The first of these is a program that applies AI to identify and monitor assets of third-party debtors, and of individuals and companies that owe money to the company.

The system is already in place and is being used to analyze real cases of reimbursing amounts owed to Petrobras.

Dubbed “Lê-AI”, this particular tool will also be used to identify “hidden assets in investigations into the illicit enrichment of employees and managers of the company,” said Petrobras. It is the first time such an AI platform has gone live at an oil company in Latin America.

According to Petrobras, Lê-AI scans and interprets records and public documents and allows the system's users to interact with them, create tables and summaries, and can also answer questions.

“Before Lê-AI, the verification was done manually, consuming hours of analysis. After implementing the program, the team responsible saved 90% of the time spent on the process. It is important to emphasize that this is a Brazilian technology, developed entirely by Petrobras,” the company's head of governance and compliance, Mário Spinelli, said in a statement.

Carbon emissions

A second initiative, developed in partnership with university PUC-RS, consists of a new platform to gather all public information on carbon capture and carbon storage (CCUS) projects in the country in a single location.

Branded GIS CCUS Brasil, the system is online and free and, according to the company, provides troves of data such as the general amounts of CO2 emitted by the country, national infrastructure in place and potential reservoirs for geological storage.

“Petrobras designed, sponsored and technically monitored the development of the CCUS Brazil GIS Platform, with the aim of supporting discussions, expanding general knowledge about the technology, encouraging possible partnerships for project implementation and stimulating regulations, standards, targets and incentives for the decarbonization of industries,” the director of engineering, technology and innovation at Petrobras, Renata Baruzzi, said in a separate statement. 

The tool was developed in partnership with PUC-RS's institute of petroleum and natural resources. It groups georeferenced data, organized in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and has its own database.

This database contains the location and quantity of CO2 emissions from over 1,500 sources, a database with over 18,000 infrastructure and logistics assets and over 370,000 protected areas or areas subject to socio-environmental protection.

It also includes data from 30,621 exploratory wells, 14,900 geophysical surveys, geological information from 72 terrestrial and marine sedimentary basins, as well as the analysis of the geological storage potential for CO2 in these basins.

The CCUS platform is fed with public data from different national and international databases and bodies.

SUPERCOMPUTER

As BNamericas first reported, China’s Lenovo beat US firm Dell and French group Atos (Bull) to win a contract to provide a new supercomputer, or high-performance computing (HPC) structure, to Petrobras.

The company presented a 510mn-real (US$92.8mn) bid in the tender, beating offers of 606mn reais and 556mn reais offered by Dell and Atos, respectively.

In total, 13 companies signed up to participate in the bidding process, but only Lenovo, Dell and Atos submitted proposals. 

At present, Petrobras boasts around 10 supercomputers, leading the way with these purchases in Brazil

The new cluster of ultra-powerful servers will be used mainly for physical imaging and geostatistical modeling, among other research and resource mapping applications.