DENVER, Colo. – A team of New Mexico Tech graduate students won the regional Imperial Barrel Award competition March 10 in Denver.

The New Mexico Tech team is (pictured, from left) Ohtark Kwon, Michael Chirigos, Danielle Sulthaus, Nick Ellis, and Ryan Haughin, all of whom are master’s students in the Earth and Environmental Science Department. Other schools in the competition were Colorado School of Mines, Brigham Young University, BYU-Idaho, and the University of North Dakota.

Team advisor Dr. Jolante van Wijk said, ”We are very proud that we were able to win in this competitive group. We are the first and only New Mexico school ever to place for the finals. This will help with recognition of NMT providing excellent petroleum-related education.”

The Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) competition is a global competition including 493 universities from 72 countries. See http://iba.aapg.org/ for more information about the competition. The event is hosted by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Each team had eight weeks to analyze geophysical datasets to propose the best prospects to drill for petroleum. Each team gave a 25-minute presentation of their work to a jury of oil industry professionals. Students have the chance to use state-of-the-art technology on a real dataset, receive feedback from an industry panel, impress potential employers in the audience, and win cash awards. The judges will select the winning team on the basis of the technical quality, clarity, and originality of presentation.

By winning the regional competition, NMT qualified for the worldwide finals in Salt Lake City in May. The national winning team will receive $20,000; second place $10,000; third place $5,000; and all other teams $1,000. 

 

– NMT –