Big Oil meets Big Tech: Microsoft deepens ties with Brazil's Petrobras

Move puts the firms at the forefront of cloud computing for oil exploration

Big Oil is tapping Big Tech to keep drilling off the shores of Brazil even as the global pandemic traps workers at home.
 

Confronted with the need to keep employees working remotely, Petroleo Brasileiro fast-tracked a move to a Microsoft cloud platform it had already been testing before lockdowns, Fernando Lemos, Microsoft’s chief technology officer in Brazil, said in an interview. That’s allowing staff to access from home data that was previously only available in the oil giant’s offices in Rio, and to monitor the use of safety equipment at deep-water vessels.
 

With the help of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology