13/02/2020

Oil and Energy are highlighted in a workshop at IMPA.

“You have no idea how satisfied I am to see an audience interested in applied mathematics projects. What a difference between this moment and the beginning of my career. It's impressive!”, stated Dan Marchesin. The IMPA researcher was one of the afternoon speakers on the first day of the Mathematics and Industry Workshop, which was supported by Petrobras.

Marchesin spoke about mathematics and scientific computing with a focus on the oil industry. The mathematician's presentation covered the description of projects in the area of fluid dynamics between 1987 and 2017, most of them in collaboration with CENPES/Petrobras. "I have been researching the oil sector since 1970, when I was beginning my doctoral studies in the United States, and I started analyzing the useful possibilities in Brazil from then on."

The reliability of equipment used in the construction of oil wells is a primary aspect of the activity, stated engineer Danilo Colombo of Petrobras. In a presentation on the topic, given with Francisco Louzada of ICMC-USP, Colombo spoke about the challenges for extraction in deepwater offshore fields.

Francisco Louzada, do ICMC-USP

"The issue of time is a problem for the oil industry. The daily cost of a drilling rig, for example, can reach R$ 1 million. The wells are extremely complex, and each failure results in a very high financial and production cost."

To discuss reservoir simulation, José RP Rodrigues, from the Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Mello Research Center (Cenpes/Petrobras), presented work done in partnership with Uerj researcher Luiz Mariano Carvalho. “A fundamental operation of these simulators is the solution of large-scale systems of linear equations, which is usually the step that requires the greatest amount of computational resources.”

José R. P. Rodrigues, da Petrobras

Due to the multiscale phenomena present in the geological complexities of the Brazilian pre-salt carbonates, simulating these fields becomes an arduous task. The problem of scaling was addressed in the lecture by Fabrício Simeoni, from ICMC-USP. He presented the Multiscale Robin Coupled Method (MRCM) project, a multi-scale method that provides flexibility in the choice of approximation spaces.

Researcher Marcio Murad, from the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), addressed areas of applied mathematics that have strong intersections with very deep reservoirs, such as the Brazilian pre-salt layer. Murad emphasized the need for collaboration between scientific fields. "Collaboration with geologists, for example, is extremely important and can yield essential information."

Claudia Sagastizábal, do Instituto de Matemática, Estatística e Computação Científica da Unicamp

“I like to think of industrial mathematics and risk management in competitive environments as a tennis match,” joked mathematician Claudia Sagastizábal, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing at Unicamp. The Argentine's presentation addressed issues such as the high volatility of market prices and the variability in exploration and production activities, called “volume risk,” in the oil and gas industry.

The Mathematics and Industry Workshop program continues this Friday (14) and is available on the IMPA website .