PetroBowl Qualifier at East Meets West

About a week ago, the “East meets West” conference took place for the 8th time. It was organized by AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Drilling, Oil and Gas as well as the AGH UST Student Chapter and was located in Krakow in Poland. The good reputation of the AGH University and the success of the EMW conference in previous years was already promising a great event.

Dozens of students from all over the world came to see and attend interesting and inspiring paper and poster presentations from different fields of study as well as different study levels. Entertaining Panel discussions about HSE aspects and women in O&G industry were held together with industry’s professionals. Several companies such as MOL Group, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes took their chance and came to present their companies and fields of business in an exciting career session. And last but not least there was this one quiz about petroleum industry – the regional PetroBowl Qualifier for Europe, North Sea, Russia and Caspian SPE Sections.

Markus Hofmeister, Alexis Koulidis, Robert Nitsche, Michael Nirtl, and Mathias Bayerl (left to right) proudly represented MUL at the PetroBowl Regional Qualifier at the EMW Congress in Krakow
Markus Hofmeister, Alexis Koulidis, Robert Nitsche, Michael Nirtl, and Mathias Bayerl (left to right) proudly represented MUL at the PetroBowl Regional Qualifier at the EMW Congress in Krakow

The arrival and welcome at the accommodation was well organized and the conference kicked off with a meet-and-greet session or simple said a pub-crawl in the city center of Krakow. On Tuesday, the first official day of the event more and more students arrived and the conference was opened by Mr. Stanislaw Nagy, representative of AGH university and Mr. Mathias Meister, SPE representative and regional director.

Later on, the first student paper contest for undergraduates started and several students presented their research work about various topics of technical and economic nature. As part of the contest, our colleague from SPE Student Chapter Oliver Spenger held a great presentation on Big Data in which he explained why less data is sometimes more. For his excellent performance, he was awarded with the second place. Congratulations Oliver!

On Wednesday morning, the preliminaries of the PetroBowl Qualifier were scheduled. Twenty teams had to compete against each other in head-to-head quiz rounds in order to reach the best 16. Six teams were already set for the next round due to good performance in the previous year. The team from Montanuniversität Leoben participated for the first time ever in the PetroBowl tournament and had to start off against Aberdeen University in their preliminary round. Ignoring mathematics here, every team was 150% motivated and the atmosphere was overwhelming. With a sound performance, our team won and went to the next round where University of Miskolc waited for them. After another win in the afternoon session, Leoben proceeded to the quarterfinals and finished its PetroBowl business for that day.

A room full of tension during the match between Montanuniversitaet Leoben and the team from Politecnico di Torino
A room full of tension during the match between Montanuniversitaet Leoben and the team from Politecnico di Torino

After a more or less short night out – priorities first – Leoben competed against Politecnico di Torino on Thursday afternoon. It was a thrilling match but in the end we won and qualified for the PetroBowl finals in San Antonio Texas. From there, all the pressure was gone and we had won dozens of fans already. In the semifinals, the last four teams competed against each other: Heriot Watt vs. AGH University & MU Leoben vs. Gubkin University. Additionally to those four teams, our friends from Stavanger University have qualified as well for the PetroBowl finals due to the Lucky Loser regulation. Congratulations!

With a solid performance, our colleagues managed to win against Gubkin University and made it to the final! In the other semifinal, AGH University defeated Heriot Watt University so that the final was made up of the host AGH University and our team from Leoben.  The atmosphere was loaded

ACPC in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Arriving in Almaty, I almost immediately fell asleep after having been traveling for more than 12 hours. Nevertheless, the long travel paid off, as I realized in the next days. On April 14, the conference began with the opening ceremony in which university and company representatives talked about the importance of networking and sharing experience and knowledge, two key points for SPE International. Also, as so often on conferences these days, the industry situation, and especially its implications for the students and fresh graduates, was a topic. Mr Iskhakov of KazNTU emphasized in this context that we should always keep these wise words in our minds: “Even if the whole world seems to be against you, always remember that airplanes always start against the wind!”

Florian defending his research work in the form of a poster
Florian defending his research work in the form of a poster

Subsequently, three events took place at the same time: The Petroleum Engineering Congress with the Upstream section of the paper contest, the Oil Games (a quiz competition), and the Job Fair, where the most renowned companies that work in Kazakhstan were represented. After lunch, it was also my own turn in participating in the paper contest, competing against 15 other students in the upstream area, with interesting topics reaching from drilling over reservoir simulation to production and reservoir management. In the evening, we were taken to Kok Tobe, a hill at the city limits, which gave us a stunning view of nightly Almaty. Tired after walking around we took the ropeway back down to the city.

Stunning view of ALmaty, the former Kazakh capital at night
Stunning view of ALmaty, the former Kazakh capital at night

The second (and already final) day started with the semi-final rounds of the Oil Games, as well as the Geology Paper Contest. Afterwards, there were presentations and motivational speeches by young successful people, such as movie directors, photographers or businessmen. They talked about how to achieve success and happiness in life – and they agreed on a surprisingly simple formula: “Do what you enjoy doing, and success and happiness will come to you all by themselves!”

After lunch, the Downstream paper contest session took place while the finalists of the Oil Games fought for the first place, which was ultimately won by three ladies of the Kazakh-British Technical University SEG Chapter, closely followed by the three ladies from Gubkin University.

In the evening, the Petroleum Party took place. In this evening gala, the winners of the paper contest sessions were announced, and I could not believe when I heard that I made third place! Of course, the evening continued on with lots of dancing, talking and taking pictures…

Medeu ski resort in the mountains surrounding Almaty. Skiing is possible until the summer here at nearly 3,000m, and you feel just like in the Austrian Alps!
Medeu ski resort in the mountains surrounding Almaty. Skiing is possible until the summer here at nearly 3,000m, and you feel just like in the Austrian Alps!

Sunday morning, I used the little free time I had, going to Medeu in the close by mountains together with colleagues from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Despite the poor weather conditions in the city, the air at nearly 3,000m above sea level was fresh, but surprisingly warm, and the local ski resort really made me want to stay longer to go skiing!

After all, the two and a half days in Almaty passed very quickly, leaving me with only one wish: having had more time to spend there to explore the city and the its surrounding amazing nature more deeply, as well as enjoying the hospitality of Kazakhstan for longer! All I can say is thank you very much to the organizers for this great event, and for the great time I had in Almaty, as well as to all the great people I met, who all made this a really unforgettable trip! Looking forward to meeting you all again! Рақмет!