AAPG’s Imperial Barrel Award Program (IBA) is an annual prospect/exploration evaluation competition/presentation competition between university student teams competing to win scholarship funds dedicated to petroleum geoscience education created for geoscience graduate students. The program is rigorous and contributes to AAPG’s mission of promoting petroleum geoscience training and advancing the careers of geoscience students.

This is a global competition, where the University teams analyze a complete dataset in six to eight weeks prior to the competition and (geology, geophysics, land, economics, production infrastructure, and other relevant materials). Each team delivers their results in a 30-minute presentation to a panel of industry experts.

Students gain experience using real technology on a real dataset. Additionally, students benefit from the feedback from the industry panel, the opportunity to impress potential employers in the audience, and the chance to win cash prizes for their schools, who will select the winning team on the basis of technical quality, clarity and originality.

The IBA is a hands-on opportunity for students to experience the creative process and the high-tech science that is the foundation of the Energy Industry today.

SDSU were the 2008 AAPG Imperial Barrel Pacific Section Champions