PUSHING THE LIMITS OF 3D BASIN MODELINGWITH LINUX CLUSTERS

摘要

In recent years, the 3D modelling and simulation of sedimentary basins[1] has become anintegral part of the exploration of reservoirs for almost all major oil companies.The most computing intensive part of the simulation consists in solving numerically acomplex system of non linear partial differential equations predicting the entire physical andchemical processes of hydrocarbon generation and accumulation through geological times.With a price/performance ratio and with services in constant progress, Linux clusters havebecome a very attractive alternative to 'traditional' high performance computing facilities.Therefore oil&gas companies have very quickly been moving to these new architectures.In this work, we describe our experience in developing a parallel basin modelling simulator[2], specially targeted for Linux clusters. The parallel scheme implemented with an MPI(Message Passing Interface) programming model [3] is presented. Critical parts of the code,such as, domain partitioning algorithms, linear solvers, preconditioning techniques, andparallel input/output operations are detailed. The new technology is presented on asedimentary basin of South America operated by Repsol YPF that enjoyed major explorationsuccesses over the last few years.As a conclusion, the combined forces of new numerical methodology, and the development ofcomputer hardware have led to substantial improvements for basin modelling. This highperformance delivers an ability to get faster and clearer images of structures and of thehydrocarbon they contain.