PetroChallenge gives students hands-on experience

Around 40 graduate and undergraduate students participated in PetroChallenge Nov. 6-7, a hands-on workshop hosted by Rice’s Energy and Environment Initiative sponsored by Schlumberger and led by NExT, a Schlumberger affiliate that provides technical and professional development training in the exploration and production sector of the energy industry. Eleven teams used NExT’s OilSim upstream learning simulator, which takes users through the entire exploration and production business process from block acquisition through development, production and abandonment. Each team was challenged to achieve the best results and awarded points based upon its strategy selection and decision-making in a simulated business environment. The two top-finishing teams earned a chance to compete against other top-finishing university teams at a regional competition in January as well as the opportunity to interview with human resources representatives from Schlumberger. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)