Customer Case Study
Dubai Petroleum Establishment
1/8/2009
Dubai Offshore Operator Uses High-Performance Computing for Mapping
Offshore oil and gas operator, Dubai Petroleum Establishment (DPE), requested a fast and cost-effective solution for running its reservoir simulations to reduce the uncertainty in its drilling and production operations. The combination of Windows® HPC Server 2008 with proprietary reservoir software will give DPE use of 3-D modeling with high-performance computing speed. The solution offers extraordinary and ongoing price advantages over similar Linux offerings.
Industry: Oil and Gas
Size: Large, 700 employees
Country: UAE  UAE

Customer Profile
http://www.dubaipetroleum.ae/
Dubai Petroleum Establishment, which was founded in 1963, is responsible for managing Dubai's offshore petroleum assets.
Business Situation
To reduce the uncertainty inherent in the drilling and production of hydrocarbons, engineers use applications to generate 3-D models that simulate the fluid and soil properties in a defined area. However, simulating fluid propagation in large complex reservoirs can be time consuming and expensive and requires high-performance computing solutions.
Solution
In May 2008, DPE, advised by Schlumberger, decided that Parallel Eclipse on Windows HPC Server 2008 was the best solution for reducing time and costs and boosting productivity.
Benefit
  • Convergence of petro-technical and business desktop: The users have all the specialist tools available to them for reservoir modelling together with line-of-business applications from Microsoft, including spreadsheet software and unified communications.
  • Remote installation, fast to deploy: After building the first node, DPE set up 10 other nodes within a few hours compared to the several days it would have taken with standalone workstations.
  • High performance, high availability: DPE is able to make more enlightened business decisions as a result of having faster turnaround times on running multiple scenario simulations.
  • Simplified storage: Simulation generates huge files but with cluster storage they are consolidated and improved because data is no longer stored in multiple drives.
  • Lower operating costs: The cluster system is used for high-end work while normal work can use a low-cost computer. Faster processing is forecast to result in cost savings of 43 per cent a year.
Software
  • Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008
  • System Center Operations Manager 2007
Quote
"DPE now has a highly cost effective set of tools for reservoir simulation, which will overcome the previous difficulties in running sensitivity cases in shorter central processing unit time. Building and simulating detailed sub-surface models helps to reduce reservoir uncertainties and make critical decisions. This will be reflected in more successful drilling, resulting in additional reserves."
Cherif Bakhoukhe
Senior Reservoir Engineer for DPE