At a ceremony in its headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Aramco launched recently a highly sophisticated electronic system for parallel simulation of oil, water, and gas reservoirs known as “gegapowers”, the second generation of the electronic system which was used by exploratory scientists for studying reservoirs in Saudi Aramco known as “powers “.
The new system was recently made available by the company to all users of its engineers to support the works of studying the characteristics of oil and gas reservoirs in oil fields. The system is capable of recording new records given its ability to simulate the giant reservoirs with accuracy levels close to those of seismic waves, in addition of providing the full fields’ forms of giant reservoirs in the Kingdom, as well as supporting the challenges system regarding the development of new fields and choosing wells’ location and improving the definition of optimal production levels, and many other aspects.

Before a group of senior managers and petroleum engineers in the company, Engineer Amin Hassan El. Nasser, the senior vice president for exploration and production at Saudi Aramco inaugurated the ceremony of this technique through carrying out a full electronic simulation of the Ghawar field, the largest oil field in the world and he commented on the event saying: “We are witnessing an important moment in the history of technical development in the works of Saudi Aramco, proving our success in providing highly advanced technical solutions for our fields and reservoirs”. El Nasser added: “This highly important technique to our work in the fields of exploration, drilling and petroleum engineering allows a higher degree of accuracy in simulating and expecting our fields and reservoirs’ behavior, together with increasing the ability to adopt optimal production strategies.”
In this respect, the Petroleum Engineering and Development Executive Director in the company Engineer Mohamed Yahya Al-Qahtani also said: “business decisions taken in the various sections and departments in the development and production Directorate at Saudi Aramco, especially in the reservoirs’ administration, usually depend on the performance of the reservoir simulating system ” powers ” with its superior strength; this available strength has highly increased with “gegapowers” system, i.e. we have progressed with a product which is already a unique product reaching levels much higher than they were. “

A group of experts in the computer simulation technology team in the advanced research center subsidiary of the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center in the company, during the inauguration ceremony has provided a number of scientific presentations on the executed research stages, in addition to the potentials of this technical step achieved by Saudi Aramco presented in its access to the “gegapowers” system. They also provided a set of advanced capabilities unique to “gegapowers” system, including “new interactive simulation environment”, “synthetic simulation” and “non-structural methodologies.”

The entire technical team members agreed that the large computer potentials represent a challenge in many industries. They said that the efforts of the company have focused over many years on advancing research in industrial and academic mediums within the broader scope of computer sciences which benefit humanity in many global areas that go beyond oil industry. They consider that launching this system is a milestone in the history of Saudi Aramco, where the company would benefit from the new technical characteristics such as; the exact scale, details and accuracy in simulating models to maintain its competitive advantage, namely having the more prudent and wised practice of the reservoirs’ administration in the world, while ensuring the optimal management of these assets.

It should be noted that the team in charge of developing this giant electronic system has started to develop the first version of the “Powers” system in expanding the simulation system in 1994. Since then, the team’s performance is growing and setting new records. By 2000, it succeeded in exceeding what the experts in this field define as the million cells’ barrier. In 2002, the team exceeded the ten million cells’ level with carrying out the first complete simulation of El Ghawar field. Since nearly a year, the team was officially able to exceed the one billion cell barrier, thus achieving their aim to create a simulation system with a gega power or billion cell information. This highly precise level in the details of the reservoirs’ geological data will be applied on daily operations, which would fully benefit the company to improve the used / applied solutions and ensure the good management of hydrocarbon wealth which God Almighty granted the Kingdom for the generations to come.