PETROCHALLENGE ABERDEEN: 25TH & 26TH JUNE

PETROCHALLENGE is an educational event aimed at school pupils aged between 14 - 19 which uses an innovative web-based learning tool where participants act as energy companies looking for oil and gas in a fictitious province, opened up for exploration.

PETROCHALLENGE provides participants with an interactive experience of the oil and gas industry, achieved through participation in what is known technically as a ‘serious simulation’. In this case, the participants simulate what it’s like to work for an oil company exploring for oil and gas in a remote, unspoilt region.

Students are grouped into teams of 4 with each team representing a virtual oil and gas exploration company. They are ‘sent’ out to a ‘virtual’ remote province that has just been opened for exploration, with a budget of $100 million to find commercially viable volumes of oil and gas. Teams compete and collaborate in this virtual reality where they will learn:

• basic geology and how to acquire and interpret seismic surveys;
• to bid for and secure licensing rights;
• how to initiate and undertake the drilling of exploration and appraisal wells;
• the importance of collaborative working and partnerships in the high stakes world of oil and gas exploration

PETROCHALLENGE provides all the challenges, opportunities and dilemmas that a real exploration team would face. It is during this process that the students gain an effective insight into the risks and challenges of oil and gas exploration, as well as exposure to real oil and gas technical processes and terminology such as magnetic, gravimetric, and seismic surveys, service providers, the environment and net present value calculations.

The underlying assumption is that you learn better when you are actively involved in taking crucial decisions rather than just passively receiving information. A vocational experience that enhances both skills for work and skills for life to develop “industry ready” young people.

PETROCHALLENGE only requires a basic knowledge of PC operation and using an internet web browser. Apart from that, there are no prior knowledge prerequisites such as geological or oil and gas industry knowledge. Teams access the learning simulation through an internet-connected PC.

To assist the teams at the event, a number of facilitators and teachers will be present and they will introduce the participants to the simulation, facilitate the process and debrief students after the event.

To request more information or to secure your schools place, please contact Fiona Macnish: fiona.macnish@opito.com