The following requirements apply to any school wishing to enroll a team in the AAPG IBA Competition. Students and Faculty Advisors are expected to adhere to these requirements to ensure a fair and equitable contest for all participants.

Any school, student, or faculty advisor wishing to participate must review the complete Rules and Operating Procedures booklet before submitting its request to participate.

See Rules and Operating Procedures Section 1 Eligibility for further explanation (below).

• Any academic institution with a Masters level (or equivalent) Geoscience degree program may apply to participate in the IBA program.
• Teams are selected on a first-come, first-enrolled basis.
• Only an accredited faculty member of the school may register a school for participation in the AAPG IBA program. Enrollment must be approved by the department Dean or Chair.
• School may enroll in the program and upon further consideration decide not to participate. If this is done before receiving the IBA dataset, there is no penalty, however if the team withdraws after the datasets have been distributed the school is required to delete the dataset from their computer systems and the IBA Committee will analyze the penalty.
• The school is responsible to ensure all students participating in the program hold a valid and current visa to participate in A Region and/or the Finals program in the United States of America or any country, should they qualify for that event. The AAPG is not responsible for assisting with visa requirements should the team be given the opportunity to travel for a competition. All visa coordination is the responsibility of the participating team.
• A school that cannot create an IBA team from their current student enrollment, may, with IBA Committee approval, combine their students with those from another school within its Section or Region, to create an IBA team. A combined team must follow all rules and operating procedures as for a single school entry. See the Rules & Operating Procedures for more information. Interested schools must complete the “Multi-School IBA” application instead of the regular team signup sheet.
• All participants (team members and traveling Faculty Advisors) must sign the Imperial Barrel Award Release, Waiver, and Indemnity Agreement as a prerequisite to taking part in the program.

• Teams should comprise no more than 5 and no less than 3 students. All students must present only their own work  or the work of their team members in their presentations. Schools that include work from non-team members shall be disqualified from the competition for the year of the violation. 
• Each faculty advisor may be assigned to only one team.  If a university would like to register a second team, a different faculty advisor must be registered with the second team and a different dataset must be chosen.  No university can have more than one team per dataset.
• The names of all student members taking part in the competition will need to be submitted and all indemnity waivers signed before the dataset distribution, or the team will not receive a dataset.
• Students may participate in a competing AAPG IBA team only once per topic, e.g. an undergrad  CCS competitor can be a graduate petroleum or geothermal competitor. There are no exceptions  to this rule. Any student participating in a formal intra-university competition is ineligible to  participate in another IBA competition on the same topic, e.g. petroleum, geothermal, or CCS. All  prior participation must be disclosed to your region coordinators. Students must be at least 18 years of age before the semifinal competition and have full-time enrollment status in the school  participating in the AAPG IBA program.
• Students with more than one year of cumulative relevant experience may petition for an exception  (using the Request for Team Member(s) Exception form). The faculty advisor will need to log in to the IBA portal and submit the request to the IBA Committee for their approval for the student to be  allowed to participate in the program. The IBA Committee will decide if the student can participate  in the program. Any team with a student with more than one year of cumulative relevant experience  who participates without IBA Committee approval shall be disqualified from the competition. All  exceptions must be approved prior to distribution of the datasets.
• Teams should be composed of Undergraduate and Masters (or equivalent) level students,  including UK MSci, Australia Hons BSc and combined BS/MS programs. In exceptional  circumstances teams may have up to two geoscience PhD students (unrelated PhD programs,  e.g. pure physics, do not count). No student should have more than three years of postgraduate  (i.e. post bachelor’s degree or equivalent) geoscience (or related field) experience. Undergraduate  students are allowed to participate.
• Substitution of a participating student on an IBA team is allowed up to two weeks after receipt of the data. After this time substitution of team members is not allowed except under extraordinary circumstances and requests should be made to the IBA Regional Coordinator who will seek the approval of the IBA Committee, if the request is deemed reasonable.
• Students will, always, adhere to a professional level of behavior in dress, conduct, language and decorum. Violation of this rule may result in the student/team being removed from the program. Under extenuating circumstances, teams will be allowed to interpret the data in the offices of a company, subject to the written approval of the IBA Committee.

Faculty advisors must commit to the program and be responsible for the team’s preparation and participation. They must be willing to act as custodians to ensure that the spirit and ethos of the exercise is honored and maintained.

• Faculty involvement should be at the advisory level only and should amount to 1 to 3 hours per week.
• Faculty advisors are allowed in the conference room during their team’s presentation. Third parties, who have also worked with or are associated with the team in preparing for their presentation, are not allowed in competition room prior to or during that team’s presentation.
• Where possible it is advised that presentation rehearsals are given to the Consultant(s) prior to the Region or Section competition. Presentations should not be given to companies, societies or other outside organizations at any time during or after the competition.

You’ve reached the right place to Register to be a Global Mentor to an IBA team in need, commencing in 2020.

If you are an exploration geoscientist, a subject matter expert in regional tectonics, geophysics, basin modeling, petrophysics, geochemistry, petroleum systems, or an IBA alum…we need you!

This is your opportunity to give back by giving forward of your time and expertise to aspiring petroleum geoscientists from around the world on perhaps their first attempt at deciphering an exploration dataset.

What is the Mission and Purpose of the Global Mentor Program?

The mission of the IBA Global Mentoring Program is to promote and facilitate a worldwide volunteer network of experienced exploration geoscientists to serve as mentors to IBA students.
The purpose of this program is to solicit volunteers who are willing and capable of enhancing a student’s understanding and interpretation of their dataset through their coaching of petroleum system elements and processes, seismic interpretation, and risking of plays and prospects.

Who are Global Mentors?

IBA mentors are exploration geoscientists, geophysicists, geochemists, or past IBA student members who volunteer to serve as technical advisors to an IBA team. They are geologists like you who have an opportunity to expand your advising roles to student teams in need of coaching on their dataset to ensure they are competitive by interpreting all the elements specified in the IBA competition rules.

Global Mentor Roles and Responsibility:

Your role and responsibility as a Global Mentor is to serve as a technical coach by providing technical advice and insights, to monitor deliverables outlined in the IBA Rules and Procedures, to review the team’s critical step progress, and to help pave the way forward to the team’s final presentation with all the boxes checked in which they will be critiqued by a panel of IBA judges.

As a Global Mentor, your requirement is to meet with the team for one hour per week, likely in a teleconference or online chat platform. If you are located near the school, in-person visits to work with the team members are a real plus.

You can learn more about the IBA program and the rules of engagement as an IBA Mentor by reviewing the Rules and Operating Procedures, Section 4: Industry Mentors (below).

You may not be an expert in all aspects of exploration, but this is where you can help us by networking with your colleagues to join in this inaugural effort to provide coaches to IBA students in need of industry mentors.

Global Mentor Guidelines

Teams may invite industry professionals as mentors to review and advise them on their presentations.

• Teams may invite a maximum of three industry mentors to provide mentorship on analysis and presentation, as long as at least one is a young professional.
• Such mentors must be advised by the Faculty Advisor as to the purpose and goal of the program prior to participating as a consultant.
• Consultants may instruct students on how to perform a task, advise as to presentation content, or encourage students to consider alternative ways in approaching the task required by the program.
• In no form, manner, or method may the mentor actually perform the work required in the program. Violation of this rule will result in the immediate dismissal of the team by the IBA Committee from the IBA program for that or upcoming year, depending upon the date of the infraction.

Other ways to Volunteer:

Become a Team Faculty Advisor

Faculty advisors must commit to the program and be responsible for the team’s preparation and participation. They must be willing to act as custodians to ensure that the spirit and ethos of the exercise is honored and maintained. For more information, click here.

Provide Sponsorship and Be a Competition Judge

Your company can support IBA by making a financial contribution to the program, sponsor Region and Global Final competitions, and can be nominated to serve as a judge. For more information, click here.