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The latest version of Pangea, TotalEnergies’ supercomputer is inaugurated in Pau

Initially developed to support TotalEnergies’ Exploration & Production activities, Pangea 4 now also meets the needs of TotalEnergies’ new activities including:

  • Wind flow simulations for wind farm design and installation.
  • Reservoir storage capacities for our carbon capture and storage projects (CCS).
  • Methane emissions reduction calculations.

On July 02, Jérôme Poncet, Head of the TotalEnergies site in Pau, and Emmanuelle Brecet, VP Technical Line Data Tech, welcomed around 40 guests for the inauguration visit. The Scientific Computing team in charge of Pangea chose to organize the inauguration during the "One TechDays", a huge seminar attended by all the experts from all TotalEnergies branches. Our work partners and local public figures from the Tech world were invited from outside of Company.

 

The alliance of supercomputing power and energy efficiency

Jérôme Poncet spoke to the guests to thank them for being present, and went back over the Pangea saga since its initial inauguration in June 1988. "We were already extremely proud to have such a valuable tool at the CSTJF. With this version, a hybrid solution combining a physical machine on site and access to computing capacities in the Cloud, we are no longer in the rat race for super power and a super ranking among world leaders. Our supercomputer has become much more than a simple computing tool, it’s the symbol of our capacity to push back the boundaries of technology to serve the Company’s ambition for cleaner, more sustainable energy" he stated.

"Pangea 4 calculates twice as fast as its predecessor. It’s less cumbersome and requires less energy, consumes around 90% less power and reduces the carbon footprint of our datacenters, and keeps us at the cutting edge of digital simulation efficiency thanks to regular Cloud updates." Emmanuelle Brechet explained. Before embarking on the discovery of the new layout with the teams supervised by Jean-Baptiste Richard, Head of the Scientific Computing Department at TotalEnergies, the Head of Datatech reiterated: "because the technical excellence of our digital algorithms will always require computing power to improve the characterization and our understanding of the Earth, Pangea must always be our computing power, foster our technical autonomy and expertise by innovating as close to business requirements as possible."

The visitors were divided into two groups and entered the ultra-secure sanctuary of Pangea and the universe of data and digital simulation through an immersive machine layout. On site, Laurent Baduel, Christophe Rey-Herme, Fabrice Cantos and Elies Bergounioux took the time to explain in simple terms how the physical machines and the Cloud actually work. Pangea gives the best in computing in line with the pioneering spirit that pervades in the Company, to tackle new challenges. The ensuing productive discussions showed how interested everyone is in the operation.
 

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