Latest news with #Eni
Zawya
17 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Egypt agrees deal with Eni, BP for oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean
CAIRO - Egypt signed an agreement with oil giants Eni and BP to start exploration activities in the Mediterranean Sea, the petroleum ministry said on Thursday The agreement also includes drilling in the coming months an exploration well for natural gas in the Lake Timsah area, which lies in a basin developed along a fault extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez through the Bitter Lakes region. (Reporting by Nayera Abdallah in Dubai, Editing by Louise Heavens)
Reuters
18 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Egypt agrees deal with Eni, BP for oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean
CAIRO, July 31 (Reuters) - Egypt signed an agreement with oil giants Eni ( opens new tab and BP (BP.L), opens new tab to start exploration activities in the Mediterranean Sea, the petroleum ministry said on Thursday The agreement also includes drilling in the coming months an exploration well for natural gas in the Lake Timsah area, which lies in a basin developed along a fault extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez through the Bitter Lakes region.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Austria's OMV finds chloride contamination in Azeri crude
By Robert Harvey LONDON -Austrian energy group OMV has found organic chloride contamination in Azeri crude cargoes planned for delivery to its oil refineries, it said, adding it had prevented it from causing any disruption. Organic chloride contamination in Azeri BTC crude cargoes was discovered last week, sending price differentials to a four-year low and causing several days' delays to loadings from Turkey's BTC Ceyhan terminal. In its statement on Friday, OMV said the contaminated crude had been discovered through its quality control procedures. It said it had not reached its refineries, and there had been no disruption of its refining operations or of its supply of fuel to the market. OMV said it had worked to secure alternative crude from other sources to "ensure continuity and security of fuels supply," but it did not clarify what it planned to do with the contaminated Azeri crude. Organic chlorides are used in the industry to boost extraction from oilfields by cleaning oil wells and to accelerate the flow of crude, but the compounds must be removed before oil enters pipelines. In large concentrations, they can pose risks to refinery equipment, OMV said. Italy's Eni told Reuters last week that it had detected organic chloride contamination in oil already in its systems. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Euractiv
4 days ago
- Business
- Euractiv
Energy's quantum leap will power Europe's supercomputers
As big data centres and artificial intelligence generate continued transformations in all areas of society, there has been increasing attention paid to how much energy these supercomputing activities use. But what is less known is that these major computing operations are also changing how energy is generated. From optimising oil and gas exploration to accelerating breakthroughs in renewables and fusion energy, advanced computing is transforming how the energy sector operates. High-performance supercomputers capable of performing immense numbers of calculations per second are finding new applications in the sector. Traditionally, such computing power has been used to analyse massive seismic datasets, helping geologists locate new oil and gas reserves deep beneath the earth's surface. But today, supercomputers are tackling far more - simulating new battery chemistries, designing more efficient solar panels, and modelling carbon capture and storage projects that could trap millions of tonnes of CO₂ underground. Energy pioneers Much of the pioneering work in this area has been going on in Europe. For instance, Italian energy company Eni has, over the past decade, been making rapid advances on its supercomputers. For years, starting in the 1970s, Eni had used supercomputing on various fronts in its traditional businesses, from optimising the operation of industrial plants to simulating the behaviour of plasma in magnetic confinement fusion. But since 2013, Eni has equipped itself with successive generations of supercomputers housed in Eni's Green Data Centre in Ferrera Erbognone, near Pavia. 'On supercomputing, it's been a very long journey at Eni, continuing today, because we started many years ago,' says Dario Pagani, Head of Digital and Information Technology at Eni, and CEO of the company's joint venture Eniquantic. 'More than ten years ago, Eni was among the first companies to believe in the so-called 'hybrid' supercomputing architectures, those combining CPUs (Central Processing Units) with GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). GPUs, initially conceived only for massive parallel computing in gaming consoles, are now at the core of the most advanced supercomputers in the world. Eni has therefore had a pioneering vision on this, and we are now reaping the fruits in terms of competitive advantage and innovation possibilities.' Eni isn't alone in Europe in its interest in the supercomputing space. TotalEnergies in France has its Pangea supercomputers, which combine on-site high-performance computing with cloud. in Germany has developed quantum algorithms for weather-risk management by collaborating with the American computing company IBM. Iberdrola in Spain has developed quantum-inspired software via multiverse computing called Singularity, which is working to solve energy sector challenges like optimising power grids and improving generation planning. All of these projects combine classical simulation with quantum-ready algorithms. Onward to quantum While supercomputers tackle huge volumes of data at extraordinary speeds, quantum computers promise something more: solving problems that are practically impossible for even the biggest classical computers. Energy companies around the world are now investing in hybrid systems that combine quantum processors with traditional high-performance computing. This combination could unlock new ways to model complex chemical reactions, optimise power grids in real time, or predict maintenance needs across vast networks of pipelines and facilities. Quantum computing could also be a game changer for ambitions in nuclear fusion, the 'holy grail' of clean energy. Simulating the extreme physics inside a fusion reactor pushes classical computers to their limits - but quantum algorithms could help tackle challenges that stand in the way of viable commercial fusion. Across the sector, the implications are clear. From oil and gas majors to green energy pioneers, companies are investing heavily in digital twins, AI-powered reservoir modelling, and quantum pilot projects to refine exploration, cut emissions, and optimise trading operations. As global energy demand grows - and the push for net zero intensifies - supercomputers and quantum systems are fast becoming the unsung heroes behind the scenes. They're more than machines: they're the engines of a cleaner, smarter, and more sustainable energy future. Realities on the ground Last year Eni launched its new HPC6 system, which today ranks first in the world among supercomputers for industrial use, and the largest of any kind outside the US. It has a computing power of 606 PFlops peak (and 477 'sustained'), equal to over 600 million-billion complex mathematical operations per second. 'This is the sixth version of our HPC machine, and it has a huge amount of computational power,' says Pagani. 'The sheer power of the hardware is very important, and hardware can be provided by different suppliers according to the period, but what is even more important is having software that can perform as well as possible in this type of architecture.' He added: 'Therefore, in parallel with choosing the best hardware configurations that the supercomputing market can offer from time to time, we have been building highly specialised internal software skills to make best use of our computational power.' Eni is one of the few companies that has been building its machines rather than buying cloud computing services, which usually come from the United States. The code on which HPC6 runs started to be developed in the 1980s by Eni. Pagani says this is particularly important for Europe's energy security. 'My vision is that quantum computing could be very important for Europe, also to develop a new internet – a quantum internet,' he says. 'It's a new frontier where the EU can play a big role.' On datacenters, he says it's important for the EU to keep pushing for developing this type of technology and facilities in Europe to reinforce its data and computing sovereignty. Eni's Green Data Centre is a good example for the whole of Southern Europe of a highly efficient and continuously evolving asset whose capabilities can benefit not just Italy but our whole continent, he says. Green challenges However, there remains an irony that as much as supercomputing can help with the generation of energy, it is also a major energy user itself. So Europe's energy companies are also looking at ways to decrease the energy consumption of these facilities, even as the computing power increases. 'Our need was to have a significant internal capability in supercomputing, both hardware and software-wise', says Pagani. 'If you want to have this kind of capability, you first of all need to have your own 'house' for the supercomputer. We therefore decided in 2013 to realise our Green Data Centre, which has a very unique set of features. Since its construction, it's one of the most energy-efficient data centres in Europe and among the best for carbon footprint, because among its original requirements were high operational efficiency and minimisation of its environmental impact, placing therefore sustainability at the core of its design.' The challenge is that these supercomputers use a huge amount of power in a small space, which can be 10kw of power in just one square metre. As the supercomputers accelerate their computing power, innovation is necessary in the design to accommodate the space in an efficient way. Structures like Eni's Green Data Centre allow for refreshing the infrastructure as innovations are found to reduce energy use, even as the computing power increases. Partnerships This digital revolution is also fueling new partnerships. Many companies are now opening their computing power to startups, universities, and research labs to accelerate innovation across the entire energy ecosystem. The goal is to combine the expertise of data scientists, chemists, physicists, and engineers to tackle big challenges in renewable energy, energy storage, and emissions reduction. By opening advanced infrastructure to external researchers, the industry hopes to multiply breakthroughs - and prove that the energy transition will rely as much on bits and qubits as on barrels and wind turbines. But these companies are also asking policymakers for more support in making sure Europe is leading in this space, making the argument that it will improve Europe's energy security. [Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Austria's OMV finds chloride contamination in Azeri crude
LONDON, July 28 - Austrian energy group OMV has found organic chloride contamination in Azeri crude cargoes planned for delivery to its oil refineries, it said, adding it had prevented it from causing any disruption. Organic chloride contamination in Azeri BTC crude cargoes was discovered last week, sending price differentials to a four-year low and causing several days' delays to loadings from Turkey's BTC Ceyhan terminal. In its statement on Friday, OMV said the contaminated crude had been discovered through its quality control procedures. It said it had not reached its refineries, and there had been no disruption of its refining operations or of its supply of fuel to the market. OMV said it had worked to secure alternative crude from other sources to "ensure continuity and security of fuels supply," but it did not clarify what it planned to do with the contaminated Azeri crude. Organic chlorides are used in the industry to boost extraction from oilfields by cleaning oil wells and to accelerate the flow of crude, but the compounds must be removed before oil enters pipelines. In large concentrations, they can pose risks to refinery equipment, OMV said. Italy's Eni told Reuters last week that it had detected organic chloride contamination in oil already in its systems.
