Petrobras to invest US$90mn in five Lenovo supercomputers

Brazil’s Petrobras will invest 500 million reais (US$89mn) in five new supercomputers, also known as high-performance computing (HPC) machines, to be supplied by tech firm Lenovo, the oil company said in a statement.

The Chinese manufacturer offered the best bid in the latest supercomputer tender held by Petrobras, as first reported by BNamericas, beating competitors and traditional HPC suppliers to the oil giant.

Lenovo presented a 510mn-real bid in the tender, beating offers of 606mn reais and 556mn reais made by Dell and Atos, respectively.

According to Petrobras, assembly of the Lenovo machines will begin this year and they will begin operating in 2025.

One of them, with processing capacity equivalent to about 10mn smartphones or 200,000 laptops, will cost 435mn reais. With the acquisition, Petrobras said it expects to maintain its leadership not only in computing capacity but also in eco-efficiency.

“The acquisition of new supercomputers is of enormous strategic importance to Petrobras, as it keeps the company at the forefront of technology in the oil and gas sector, in relation to sub-surface seismic imaging. With this upgrade, we will be able to expand the execution of seismic processing projects with state-of-the-art technologies,” Sylvia Anjos, Petrobras’ director of exploration and production, said in a statement.

Petrobras is a leader in supercomputers in Latin America, with around 10 such machines, some of which are among the most powerful in the world. 

The new supercomputers will replace others currently in place.

The biggest of the HPCs to be delivered by Lenovo will weigh approximately 50t. This supercomputer will have a capacity of approximately 73 petaflops (PFlops). A petaflop is equivalent to 1 quadrillion flops, or operations per second. 

When the installation is complete, it will replace the Fênix, Atlas and Dragão supercomputers, which will be shut down.

The renewal of the supercomputers is part of the company’s strategy "to keep its technology fleet up to date," and the investments are foreseen in Petrobras' 2024-28 strategic plan, the company said.

The largest of the supercomputers is also expected to be the most eco-efficient in Latin America, with enormous processing power in relation to the energy consumed, according to Petrobras.

Four tech tenders underway

Google Maps 

Among the Petrobras technology tenders currently underway, the company is seeking a new Google Maps Platform license subscription.

The Google Maps Platform is a package that includes technology (web services and APIs), spatial information (maps and aerial and satellite/orbital images from around the world), and geocoding.

“The Google Maps Platform will allow Petrobras' websites and applications, although restricted access on the company’s web system, to both incorporate the services and features of the Google Maps Platform and add Petrobras' data to the maps,” the oil company said.

Bids can be sent by September 19. Further information on the tender can be found on Petronect under reference number (“Oportunidade”) 7004302659.

Intellectual property software

Another tender underway is for licensed use in the subscription (cloud) mode of a solution for intellectual property (IP) asset management.

In this case, the contractor must provide the right to use a license, in the form of simultaneous access, in the software as a service (SaaS) mode, for a solution to manage technology transfer processes.

Petrobras has a workforce of approximately 106,000 people and around 7,000 IP assets registered in its legacy system. 

The company reports an average of 200 users/month of the IP system, with around 650 unique users expected to be dedicated to the existing system throughout this year, according to the company.

The new cloud solution must allow the registration and access of the entire Petrobras workforce in the system, as well as growth of data in the database.

Petrobras estimates that by the end of the contract the number of IP assets will be around 10,000 

Bids can be submitted by September 3 via Petronect. The information can be found under reference number 7004298101.

Cybersecurity

Petrobras is also bidding for the provision of specialized services, including licensing, operation, management and analysis of cybersecurity, implementation and training.

Specialized IT security services include auditing and verification of information security compliance; ICT risk management and analysis; vulnerability analysis and breach testing; and security operation and monitoring (antivirus, firewall, IPS, SIEM, digital vaults, AntiSpam, persistent threats), among others.

They also include "specialized security solution projects to ensure the availability, integrity and confidentiality of Petrobras Group data," the company said.

Bids can be sent by September 17. Tender information can be accessed on Petronect using reference number 7004303301.

Microsoft

Finally, Petrobras is looking for development, project management or content management services for its portfolio on Microsoft's platform.

A significant part of Petrobras' portfolio is made up of projects and portfolio management applications running on the Microsoft PPM platform (Project Server 2019 and Project Online).

Petrobras, however, is adopting a new web project and it may be necessary to migrate existing applications to another Microsoft Project Management platform, such as Planner Premium.

According to Petrobras, “it may be necessary to develop functionalities in the power platform to meet the application migration requirements and to build new functionalities.”

After an initial postponement, bids can now be sent by September 9. The reference number on Petronect is 7004297873.