In 2007, the first AAPG/AAPG Foundation
Imperial Barrel Award competition was
held at the AAPG Annual Convention and
Exhibition in Long Beach, Calif. The program
was the brainchild of AAPG Honorary Member
Steve Veal, who was at the time director
of the Europe Region office, located in the
Geology Department of Imperial College,
Royal School of Mines, University of London.
Professor Howard Johnson had invited Veal
to be a member of a panel to judge an internal
technical competition called the Imperial
Barrel Award, with teams from the petroleum
geology master’s degree program. The “barrel”
in the title was not a barrel of oil, but a barrel
of beer, which was given to the winning team
by the Petroleum Society of Great Britain, an
AAPG affiliated society. Teams were provided
with a seismic and well database, and were
charged to analyze the basin, hydrocarbon
system and prospects they identified.
Veal recognized the potential for expanding
the program globally under the auspices of
AAPG and, together with Johnson, wrote a
proposal to the AAPG Executive Committee,
detailing how the program might work. The
EC embraced the proposal and assigned
the AAPG Student Focus Coordinating
Committee the responsibility of organizing
the first competition. They faced many
challenges in expanding the program beyond
Imperial College. Those challenges included
generating student and university interest,
scalability, availability of adequate datasets
and, of course, funding. Veal so believed in
the importance and viability of this fledgling
program that he diligently worked to acquire
funding to hold the inaugural competition in
Long Beach. Teams from seven universities
participated, despite uncertainties surrounding
the new program and the commitments
required.
Mobilizing Membership and Mentors
The program has grown dramatically since
2007, aided by the impact of IBA experience
on a student’s résumé for many corporate
recruiters. Having had experience on a team
working with a real exploration dataset
differentiates IBA alumni from many of their
peers. IBA teams have access to training
materials provided by leaders in petroleum
geology and geophysics, and participants
acquire invaluable technical and interpersonal
skills while working with subsurface datasets
that challenge their knowledge and ingenuity.
Over time, the program has transitioned the
emphasis and focus from the competition
aspect to the goal of training and developing
future petroleum geoscientists in an
environment where there are only winners.
The complexity of the IBA program
demands the time and energy of numerous
volunteers and AAPG staff around the world.
Participating universities are in different
time zones and have differing schedules
and course lengths. All teams have a faculty
adviser to provide guidance. Some universities
incorporate the IBA program into their
curricula and many run internal, multi-team
competitions in order to select the team
representing them at the semifinals.
Mentors have always played a critical role
in the success of the IBA. In the last two years
the IBA Committee has kicked off a Global
Mentor Program, which pairs highly skilled
explorationists, including Young Professionals,
with universities that don’t have an oil patch
in their backyard or an alumni network to
rely on. This initiative has attracted more
than 70 mentors in 2021 from multinational
exploration companies, independents,
consultants and retired professionals. This has
been a great addition to the countless mentors
who have supported their alma mater or
favorite university over the last 15 years.
Evolving Technology
Delivering data to universities around the
globe on time was critical in the early stages
of the program. Data were initially compiled
on large external drives that could be lost or
misplaced in delivery, which happened on
a few occasions. Today this task is much
easier as all the data can be downloaded
via an file transfer protocol site managed by
AAPG. This deliverability has allowed a more
level playing field and has greatly reduced
delays in accessing data. Other logistical
issues are ongoing, such as slow internet
speeds in some locations and arranging
global travel and obtaining student visas
during “normal” program years.
All region and section semifinals were
initially conducted face-to-face, with student
teams presenting their work to a judging
panel. As the number of participating teams
increased, the regions began to adopt virtual
semifinals to solve issues with large-scale,
international travel and funding limitations.
Restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic
in 2020 required all semifinals to be held
virtually, which will continue in 2021. Travel
expenses and visa issues also favor virtual
semifinals. That said, the experience of
facing an expert panel of judges in person
and the opportunity to meet other teams
from around the world is important for the
Global Final, and we hope to resume a face-to-face Global Final at the 2022 ACE.
Future of the IBA Program
The industry downturn and COVID
pandemic caused a significant decline
in university participation and corporate
sponsorship. The decline in financial support
has been addressed by increasing the virtual
aspect of the program, which turned out to be
essential during the pandemic. The number of
universities taking part still declined by a third,
with U.S. sections declining nearly two-thirds.
In the future, we may see a further decline as
petroleum geoscience courses are abandoned
or transformed into those with broader energy
and sustainability-related curricula. The IBA
Committee is working on changes to the
program in response, broadening the scope
with more emphasis on sustainability. New
datasets need to be continually acquired
and financial and non-financial (such as
software, training, mentoring, and organizing)
sponsorship maintained. The program needs
to continually evolve in order to maintain
its impact and the interest of students,
universities and sponsors.
The AAPG/AAPG Foundation IBA
Program is an outstanding educational
program for students, and its future
success will result from adapting to the
changing conditions of the energy industry
and its workforce. Furthermore, it will
depend upon the energy and enthusiasm
of numerous volunteers fulfilling roles on
the IBA Committee and as coordinators,
mentors and judges, and also our dedicated
headquarters staff. Please follow the AAPG
Student Program pages on social media for
the latest news, updates and results.