OilVoice - PetroChallenge Focuses on the Next Generation of Oil Industry Employees

PetroChallenge Focuses on the Next Generation of Oil Industry Employees

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

An Innovative event designed to attract the next generation of employees into the oil industry is back bigger and better than ever before.

The Oil & Gas Academy PetroChallenge was originally launched in Aberdeen but is now being mapped out across five other venues to reach 800 senior school pupils throughout Britain.

The educational event, which sees school pupils from all over the world battle it out as oil barons, will now take place in six locations including Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, Fife and Norfolk with the final venue to be confirmed.

The competitors will pit their wits against each other, finding out what it's like to work for an oil company exploring for oil and gas in a remote, unexplored region.

The UK winning team goes through to the international final in London next year where they will face finalists from schools around the globe including the Faroe Islands, Norway, Greenland, Denmark and Iceland.

Each team adopts the role of an energy company entering into a new oil and gas province. Starting with $200 million in funds, their challenge is to maximise the return on investment by finding oil or gas and investing in other team's opportunities.

The competing teams study seismic surveys, bid for licenses, farm out shares of licences to other teams, compete for rigs, contract service providers and choose where to drill wells to provide pupils with a fascinating insight into the oil and gas industry.

The event, formerly known as OilSim, was taken on by OPITO - The Oil & Gas Academy in 2009 in partnership with educational specialist Simprentis and is proving to be extremely popular.

Diane Johnston, the Academy's skills and learning development co-ordinator, said: 'We're delighted that due to the success of PetroChallenge we can now break into new areas.

'The event helps to highlight that the Oil & Gas industry is much more than oil rigs and manual labour as it gives an understanding of the oil and gas industry from both a technical and business perspective.

'We've always had a great response and are now looking for an even bigger uptake this time around.

'There's little doubt all the pupils who have taken part in the past have thoroughly enjoyed themselves while at the same time been able to learn about the industry.

'It is also a real eye opener for some who have perhaps in the past never even considered working within a sector that is not only rewarding and challenging but extremely exciting.'

OilVoice Graduate link
OilVoice has launched a new Graduate section which aims to reinforce the link between education and the energy sector. As well as capturing news that covers the important relationship between universities and industry, there is also an opportunity to review current oil company graduate recruitment details or access our global university directory. From oil and service companies we would welcome industry news and information that targets the graduate community. In addition, we would like to talk to representatives from universities to discuss how we can help to create awareness of initiatives targeted at the global energy industry.