Yahoo Finance TOTAL's (TOT) Pangea III to Assist Exploration Projects
TOTAL S.A. TOT has brought online its new Pangea III supercomputer, which is currently the most powerful commercial supercomputer of the world. Developed by International Business Machines Corporation IBM, this supercomputer will increase the company’s computing capabilities by almost 5 to 31.7 petaflops (equivalent to 170,000 laptops combined) and triple the storage capacity to 76 petabytes.
This massive investment in technology will allow TOTAL to carry on with the goal of expanding the hydrocarbon business globally. Since this supercomputer is based on IBM's Power9 CPUs, it will be utilized to improve and accelerate TOTAL’s oil and gas exploration missions. Pangea III will be able to crunch massive volume of seismic data and utilize modeled seismic images to spot resource locations.
The above information will be useful for TOTAL in complex geologic environments wherein resources are trapped under salt, such as in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, Angola and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Other Benefits to be Derived From Pangea III
Pangea III will also increase TOTAL’s business efficiency by enabling an early assessment of the value of exploration acreage and asset opportunities, thereby enhancing selectivity in its new ventures. The new supercomputer will be able to integrate a field’s production history to generate more reliable predictive production models at a much faster rate and far more accurately than the previous ways.
TOTAL’s Position Among Super Majors
TOTAL operates in an elite group of super majors, thereby exposing it to tough competition. TOTAL has to compete with the likes of ExxonMobil XOM and Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A, among others, for acquiring assets and licenses for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, and sale of manufactured products based on crude and refined oil.
TOTAL has created a niche for itself through the start-up of new cash-accretive projects, plus contribution from new assets, mainly Maersk Oil, which will continue to boost the company’s cash-flow generation capability.
In addition to production of hydrocarbons, TOTAL is also seriously focused on the development of alternate sources of energy and lending assistance in lowering global emission. This in a way allows it to explore and benefit from an area that is not taken up so seriously by other supermajors.
Price Performance
Year to date, shares of the company have underperformed its industry.
Zacks Rank
TOTAL currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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