UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA WINS PETROBOWL FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

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NORMAN — A University of Oklahoma student team has made history by winning the national PetroBowl and becoming the first university to win two years in a row by beating the University of Texas in the final round.

The PetroBowl tests teams on their knowledge ranging from the fundamentals of petroleum engineering to the history and current events of the oil and gas industry. The competition took place at the International Society of Petroleum Engineers Technical Conference and Exhibition held this week in Denver.

OU students Phillip Brauer, Sarah Kassis, Devon Koetter-Manson, Charles Meyer and Chinenye Excel Ogugbue were awarded the silver trophy and a $500 scholarship each from EnCana, a natural gas and oil company headquartered in Alberta, Canada. OU alumnus Curtis Mewbourne of Mewbourne Oil Co. has pledged to match each scholarship. Carl Sondergeld, associate dean of the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy and Mewbourne Professor in the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, is the faculty sponsor and coach of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering SPE student team.

The PetroBowl, sponsored by the Society of Petroleum Engineers Gulf Coast Section Young Professionals Program, EnCana and PetroSkills, matches four-person teams of students from around the world in competition.

Also during the conference, OU students Guillermo Michel Villazon and Ashraf Al Tahini were presented with the SPE Young Professional’s Paper Award.

In addition, two members of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering faculty were honored with awards. Dean Oliver, Mewbourne Chair Professor of Petroleum Engineering, was named the 2008 SPE Distinguished Member, and Assistant Professor I. Yucel Akkutlu was recognized as the 2008 Outstanding Associate Editor.