UK oil and gas company BP has more than doubled the total computing power of its Houston-based Center for High-Performance Computing (CHPC) in order to strengthen its commercial research capabilities.

The upgrade resulted in increased computing power, speed and storage, which will help BP to bring down the time needed to analyse swathes of seismic data to support exploration, appraisal and development plans, as well as other research and technology developments throughout the company.

As part of the upgrade, the company used Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Apollo System and Intel’s Knights Landing processors to enhance the processing speed of its supercomputer from four petaflops to nine petaflops.

“BP will be able to further bolster its capabilities to accurately process and manage vast amounts of seismic data to identify new business opportunities and improve operational efficiency.”

The CHPC supports BP’s upstream business segment, serving as the worldwide hub for research computing.

BP upstream technology head Ahmed Hashmi said: “Our investment in supercomputing is another example of BP leading the way in digital technologies that deliver improved safety, reliability and efficiency across our operations and give us a clear competitive advantage.”

It is claimed that the supercomputer has so far enabled the achievement of breakthroughs in advanced seismic imaging and rock physics research to help with reservoir modelling.

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The supercomputer also supports BP’s downstream business during fluid dynamic research to study hydrocarbon flows at refineries and pipelines to improve operational safety.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise data centre infrastructure group senior vice-president and general manager Alain Andreoli said: “With the expansion and new systems in place, BP will be able to further bolster its capabilities to accurately process and manage vast amounts of seismic data to identify new business opportunities and improve operational efficiency.”

The CHPC was first opened in 2013.

BP has since increased its computing power by four times and doubled its storage capacity.

The company plans to further expand its computing capability next year.