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. Region IBA Coordinators will assist schools in their areas on the efforts for Visa clearances (with the aid of AAPG Regional offices where available). The visa effort for those teams qualifying for the Finals will be coordinated by the .
• 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 be composed of 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 geoscience (or related field) experience. No more than two undergraduate students are allowed to participate in each team unless circumstances dictate that an exception to this rule is warranted (e.g. Regions that have few or no Masters Level or equivalent programs). If such a situation does occur, the Region or Section Coordinator is to notify the IBA Committee Secretary to secure IBA Committee permission for the undergraduate(s) to participate using the Request for Team Member(s) Exception form. All exceptions must be approved prior to distribution of the datasets.
• There must be no fewer than three (3) and no more than five (5) team members per team. All team members must be present at the local and global competitions for the team to be eligible to compete. Special circumstances must be cleared two (2) weeks prior to the competition date with the local or global committees respectively. Teams may not change team members between the local and global competitions.
• Students must have full-time enrollment status of the institution participating in the AAPG IBA program. Students may have petroleum exploration experience amounting to a total of one-year’s experience in the industry and still qualify for the program.
• Students should have no more than one year of cumulative professional petroleum, carbon sequestration or geothermal energy exploration/development experience. Purely mudlogging experience does not count as petroleum exploration/production experience. Students with more than one year of cumulative relevant experience may petition the Region Coordinator for an exception (using the Request for Team Member(s) Exception form) in order to be allowed to participate in the program. The Request for Team Member Exception Form must be used and should be sent to the Region IBA Coordinator. The Region must approve the exception and recommendations for acceptance are to be forwarded by the Coordinator to the IBA Committee Secretary. 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.
• The de-facto language of the presentations in the Region and Final competition shall be English. A Region may allow translation services in the Region competition. AAPG is not responsible for supplying or paying for an interpreter for any competition.
• Students shall all be required to participate equally in a twenty-five (25) minute PowerPoint presentation of their exploration project. All students must present only their own work or the work of their team members in their presentations. Students may prepare a one-page handout (two-sided allowed) to give to each judge, as an executive summary of their presentation. Students may NOT augment their presentation in any form, AND RESPECT THE 25 MINUTE TIME ALLOTMENT.
• Students may only participate in the AAPG IBA program once in their education careers. There is no exception to this rule.
• Student’s will at all times, adhere to a professional level of behavior in dress, conduct, language and decorum. Violation of this rule may result in the student(s) involved being suspended from the competition.

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, donating a dataset, sponsor luncheons or ice breakers at Section and Region semifinal competitions, and volunteering to serve as a judge. For more information, click here.