Let’s kick off something new in our chapter’s history!
Are you passionate about your studies and eager to proof that in a competitive setting? The terms “fish”, “pig”, or “horse head” don’t trigger associations with animals in the first place and you are willing to support a team with your specialized knowledge while also learning from the experience of your team mates? Are you simply keen to try something new? Then the PetroBowl competition 2017 might be something you don’t want to miss.
The PetroBowl competition pitches SPE student chapter teams against each other in a series of quick-fire rounds, answering technical and nontechnical industry-related questions. The regional qualifier of this international competition will take place during the “East meets West” student conference in Krakow on 5-7 April 2017. Achieving one of the first places in Krakow would automatically result in the qualification for the PetroBowl finals at the Annual Technical Conference in 2017 in San Antonio, Texas.
Unfortunately, cost cuttings due to a long-lasting low oil price have also affected this event. SPE International will not provide financial sponsorship for participation at a regional competition, nor for the Championship. Although this means that we will be responsible for all costs associated with traveling to the Championship, we are convinced that this is going to be a great and thrilling experience.
If all of this sounds like real fun to you, then please shoot us an email to chapter@speleoben.com with a brief introduction of yourself, your current semester, your specialization and why you think you are the perfect team mate for our PetroBowl 2017 team until Tuesday, 06 December.
With great inputs for discussion, knowledge sharing the congress has not only proven to be a great place to meet new people and to network but it was also the perfect opportunity to bring together old friends. Nicola travelled from Vienna to Krakow whereas Christian made his way from the north, since he is currently doing an exchange at NTNU in Trondheim. The reunion included typical Leoben traditions (beer J) but also the final preparation for our poster presentation. In fact, as most of the other participants were enjoying dinner, we were sitting in our hotel room rehearsing and trying to figure out the most salient points to address in front of the jury. Certainly we joined the party afterwards, but business before pleasure!
The first day of the congress was highlighted by the debate “Managing the current economic situation in the Oil & Gas Industry” and the career session featuring Orlen Upstream, EY, MOL Group, and FMC technologies. On the second day of the congress it was our turn. We presented the results from our “Flow Behaviour Investigation of a Sandstone Reservoir”, research that we had carried out as part of our bachelors programme related to a geological field study. It describes how we developed an outcrop-analogue reservoir model from a mapped geological area. After carrying out a flow simulation using this model, we investigated the different effects of changing scenarios (water injection pressure, viscosity as well as density of oil and water phase). Additionally we accounted for uncertainties running a probabilistic calculation of the stock tank original oil in place.
The posters were put up in the exhibition area and visitors as well as the jury walked from one work to the next in order to ask questions and inform themselves about the conducted research. A total of twenty different posters were presented at the congress also featuring “Drilling Rate Models for PDC Bits” by Florian Gamperl, one of our colleagues from Leoben. The posters included drilling, reservoir, production, geology, petrophysics, and even refinery topics leaving the judges with the fairly difficult task to rank them. Among other criteria poster appearance, innovativeness and laboratory research were accounted for. Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time ourselves to see all the other posters, and to talk to with their authors, which we would really have appreciated.
Christian Mudrak & Nicola Zivelonghi next to their poster presentation
At the lasts day’s closing ceremony one presenter after the other was called on stage. Although being confident with our performance we were astonished to be called out as the winners of this year’s poster competition. We felt relieved and proud when receiving the award Even now, a few days after the event, these feelings are still present. Hereby we want to express our gratitude to the organizing committee again, and to our guides who took such care of us in Krakow. It was great to be part of the event! Additionally we want to thank the SPE Student Chapter Leoben for their support.
In conclusion, we really want to encourage fellow students to step up and present their work at one of the several possibilities. As a member one can benefit from SPE in so many ways but entering the stage will give you additional attention and a whole new level of interaction with other students, scientists, and industry professionals.
