Petrobras Standardizes on Intergraph® SmartPlant® Instrumentation

Software enhances engineering instrumentation data organization in projects to increase productivity and accelerate projects.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala - Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) (NYSE: PBR/PBRA), the Brazilian international energy company, has standardized on Intergraph® SmartPlant® Instrumentation software as its instrumentation solution for all of its upstream projects.

An existing Intergraph customer that had already standardized on Intergraph solutions for design and modeling, Petrobras began using SmartPlant Instrumentation on oil platform projects, such as its P-50 series platforms. The resulting productivity gains and global access to experienced users and contractors convinced Petrobras to implement SmartPlant Instrumentation on all upstream projects.

Recent Petrobras onshore projects include gas treatment facilities in Caraguatuba (São Paulo) and Espirito Santo and offshore structures and vessels to tap the rich potential of a new discovery in the Gulf of Mexico and the ultra-deep Tupi and Santos Basin megafields off the coast of Brazil.

SmartPlant Instrumentation is part of the SmartPlant Enterprise solutions suite that provides full design, construction, materials and engineering data management capabilities needed for the creation, safe operation and maintenance, and capital Project Life cycle Management (cPLM) of large-scale process, power, marine and offshore projects.

SmartPlant Instrumentation is the industry’s leading instrumentation design tool, bringing all instrumentation information together for a plant control system which can be easily accessed and updated to ensure consistency across the different instrument contractors, tasks and deliverables.

SmartPlant Instrumentation can more effectively manage changes by providing faster access to consistent data and rapid incorporation of modifications that impact numerous deliverables. In addition, the solution helps prevent plant failure by better maintenance planning, and managing the plant’s instrumentation design basis throughout the lifecycle.

To choose a corporate standard solution, Petrobras performed market research on a variety of solutions and verified the options available against a list of needs. From these results, the company identified potential suppliers, and then made its selection. In this case, Intergraph was the choice after all factors were considered. Intergraph is represented in Brazil through its distributor SISGRAPH, who provides local training and support to Petrobras.

“Because we were already using Intergraph’s modeling solution and had realized productivity gains, expanding the use of the suite’s integrated solutions was the logical choice,” said Alexandre Maia, Petrobras engineer for exploitation and production and maritime transport engineering. “Additionally, it also made sense because many different engineering companies use Intergraph solutions as well and this allows us to collaborate with them more effectively.”

Intergraph Corp. Chief Operating Officer Reid French said, “Petrobras is a strategic and important customer of ours, and we are pleased that our solutions have provided this progressive industry leader with continued productivity increases and savings. In choosing SmartPlant Instrumentation as its global instrumentation design standard for upstream segment, Petrobras has affirmed Intergraph’s leadership as the engineering software standard for the world and for the oil and gas and offshore industries.”

The ARC Advisory Group, a leading industry analyst firm, ranked Intergraph the No. 1 overall engineering design 3D software and process engineering tools (PET) provider worldwide and for the oil and gas industry according to its PET Worldwide Outlook Market Analysis and Forecast through 2013.