Judges. From left to right: Ronana Avila (ANP), Marco Vinicius Popini (Petrobras), Nadege Bize-Forest (Schlumberger) and Luis Gustavo Pipa (ExxonMobil)

Students and professionals from Bucaramanga, Colombia are celebrating this week following the Industrial University of Santander (UIS) team’s victory at the Latin America and Caribbean Region Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) Semifinals held in Rio de Janeiro on April 5.

The IBA is an international competition in which groups of five students analyze geological, seismic and petrophysical data provided by the AAPG and corporate sponsors. After eight weeks developing exploration prospects, teams present their results to a panel of industry experts. Each year, semifinal winners represent the region in the global competition held prior to the AAPG Conference and Exhibition (ACE) in the United States.

Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) team

The 2019 AAPG Latin America and Caribbean Region (LACR) Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) competition received for the competition 21 universities from 9 countries.

All teams participate in the virtual round held via WebEx on March 1. The top finisher in each of four groups advanced to the in-person semifinals in held in Rio de Janeiro.

Teams competing in the virtual round included:

University of Buenos Aires (UBA) team

• Argentina: University of Buenos Aires, National University of Córdoba
• Bolivia: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• Brazil: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Federal University of Sergipe, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Federal University of Pernambuco
• Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, EAFIT, Universidad Industrial de Santander
• Mexico: Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
• Peru: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria
• Suriname: Anton de Kom University of Suriname
• Trinidad & Tobago: University of the West Indies
• Venezuela: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Universidad Simon Bolivar

Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) team

Teams from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Universidad Central de Venezuela and State University of Rio de Janeiro finished first in their respective groups and advanced to the semifinal round held at the Petrobras Research Facility in Rio de Janeiro on April 5.

State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) team

After the competition, students had a presentation from NVIDIA about artificial intelligence, and then had lunch and enjoyed some technical presentations and facility visits with Petrobras staff.

The semifinals concluded with the awards ceremony and reception announcing the first and second place winners, the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) from Bucaramanga, Colombia and the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), from Buenos Aires, respectively. Both teams have a recent history of winning in the region. The UIS team won the region semifinals in 2017, while the UBA team won the semifinals in 2018.

Two of the LACR Coordinators: Mayra Vargas – Daiane Cardoso

The AAPG Latin America and Caribbean thanks our 21 teams, students and advisors for all their hard work and dedication these past few months. We also thank sponsors Chevron, Shell, Schlumberger, Petrobras and ABGP for making this valuable experience possible. We are very proud of our region’s young leaders and grateful for those who support their professional and personal development.