IPAA independent petroleum association of america, america's oil and gas producers

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News Media Contact:
Doris Richardson / Nicole Daigle
202.857.4722 / 800.433.2851

For Immediate Release
January 4, 2010


Hundreds of Houston-Area Petroleum Academy Students To Become Natural Gas, Oil Explorers in First PetroChallenge

HOUSTON - The first United States PetroChallenge will be held Sunday, January 10th, where hundreds of Houston-area students will compete for awards in the field of oil and natural gas exploration by studying seismic surveys, bidding for licenses, farming out shares of licenses to other teams, competing to get rigs, contracting service providers, and choosing where to drill wells.

More than 300 Houston Independent School District Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology Academy students from Westside High School, Milby High School and Lamar High School are expected to participate in the PetroChallenge, sponsored by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), the Houston Producers Forum, El Paso Corporation, Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA) and the University of Houston College of Technology.

This innovative two-day computer simulation competition was created by Simprentis, a United Kingdom-based educational software development company and The Oil & Gas Academy. It is used throughout Europe in training non-technical energy industry employees, university students, as well as high school engineering and geosciences students.

Each student team becomes an energy company entering a new oil and natural gas field. Starting with $200 million in funds, their challenge is to maximize the return on investment by finding oil or gas and investing in other team's opportunities.

"PetroChallenge provides a unique platform for demonstrating not only the excitement of the oil and natural gas industry, but also it integrates the skills and career information students are learning in our petroleum academies. This innovative educational competition serves as a powerful tool to stimulate the next generation of talented energy professionals who will drive this industry forward," said Barry Russell, President and CEO of IPAA.

Details are below and a location map is attached.

Date/Time: Sunday, January 10, 2010 @ 11:00 AM

Location: University of Houston, College of Technology
              (see attachment)

Contact: Doris Richardson; Director IPAA Education
             Center; drichardson@ipaa.org

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IPAA is the national trade association representing oil and natural gas producers that drill 90 percent of the nation's oil and natural gas wells. These companies account for 68 percent of America's oil production and 82 percent of its natural gas production.