Having stood first in the Middle East region the SQU team will now compete in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) annual global IBA which will be held in Canada from June 18-19. The competition will see participation of 12 universities.

The team comprises four earth sciences students - Alaa Abdullah Hinaiah Khawla Musa Baloch Maha Shatit Aghannamah and Ahmad Nabhani and a petroleum engineering student Nawaf bin Yahya al Wahaibi.

The team is being supervised by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed from the Department of Earth Sciences.

Nabhani said the university teams analyse a dataset (geology geophysics land production infrastructure and other relevant materials) in eight weeks prior to the competition. 'Each team presents the analysis in a 25-minute presentation to a panel of industry experts. The winning team is selected on the basis of technical quality clarity and originality.'

Speaking about the challenges Nabhani said that the project seeks to enhance knowledge in petroleum geoscience and helps advance the career of earth science students. 'The biggest challenge was our lack of knowledge of technology and software used in the field of oil exploration. But we overcame these challenges by taking help of experienced people in the oil and gas sector.'

He however had a piece of advice for students aspiring to take part in the competition in future 'One should not get bogged by challenges in the beginning of the journey. Such competitions offer you a platform to exchange knowledge and interact with experts.'

The regional competition was held in Bahrain which saw participation of eight universities (three from Jordan two from Oman and one each from Saudi Arabia UAE and Kuwait).