FUTA ALUMNI CLINCH GOLD, BRONZE AT INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN SAUDI ARABIA
FUTA ALUMNI CLINCH GOLD, BRONZE AT INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN SAUDI ARABIA
Two alumni of the Federal University of Technology, Akure who recently graduated in the 2018/2019 session have done the university proud by winning Gold and Bronze at the just concluded 12th International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) Education Week held in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia between 11th and 15th January, 2020. Anne Ayomiposi Joseph led a group of five young scholars to win Gold, while Awosiji Victor Akinbola led another group of five to win Bronze.
Conveying the stride to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Joseph Fuwape, the Head, Department of Applied Geology that produced the award winners, Professor Saka Opeloye said Miss Anne Ayomiposi Joseph and Mr. Victor Akinbola Awosiji both first class graduates in the 2018/2019 academic session were nominated by the department to participate in the summit. They were shortlisted by the organizers to make the 100 students across the globe that partook in the Education Summit and were adequately sponsored by the organizers. The Summit was aimed at engaging young people across the world in solving issues in the energy sector as a way of meeting the demands of ever-growing energy challenges. 18,000 participants from over 70 countries attended the Summit.
Professor Opeloye further said that the two representatives of the university were in different groups consisting students of other nationalities. Anne Joseph’s group came first, while Victor Awosiji’s group came third. They both received their awards in the presence of world acclaimed professionals in the industry. Their feat is a credit to the intensive geosciences training they received at FUTA.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Joseph Fuwape while commending the effort of Anne and Victor reaffirmed FUTA’s relevance in the global arena. He said “this recent feat by our fresh graduates is a further confirmation of FUTA as the best university of technology in Nigeria with potentials to become world class institution in no distance time. I congratulate Anne and Victor and urge other students not to relent in their effort to give the university a further leap globally. FUTA is not just the best university of technology in Nigeria in words, but also in deed.”
Sharing her experience at the competition, Gold medalist, Anne Joseph said “I was opportuned to be part of the 100 students nominated from all over the world for the 12th International Petroleum Technology Conference Education Week, which took place in Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 11th–15th January 2020. The main aim of the organizers is to engage young people in the energy sector in order to ensure the world’s ever-growing energy demands will be met. The conference attracted record participation of over 18,000 attendees and over 1,200 organizations from over 70 countries around the world, as well as over 250 exhibiting companies. The week was filled with fun, learning and networking. The IPTC volunteers divided us into 20 groups consisting of different nationalities. We were engaged with virtual game competition, Exhibition assignment, and field trip. The virtual game competition was carried out with the aid of petrel. The task was to strategically choose and drill delineation wells given an exploratory well that struck oil in order to know the limits and characteristics of the reservoir at the Gulfaks Oil field in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea. The exhibition assignment involved the use of Scavenger hunt application to answer multiple choice questions, taking video and images to complete the task.”
The IPTC is sponsored by four industry organizations and societies: The American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG), Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and European Association of Geoscientist and Engineers (EAGE). It is the biggest world gathering of the best experts and decision makers of the oil and gas industry.
The event was attended by the OPEC Secretary General- HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia - HRH Prince Mohammed Bin Salman bin AbdulAzeez Al-Saud, HRH Prince Abdul Azzez bin Salman Al-Saud- Minister of Energy, Saudi Arabia and CEO's of major oil companies like Total, Saudi Aramco, Halliburton, Baker Hughes a GE company, ExxonMobil, Schlumberger etc.
