Team Oildivers - Nicolai Liborius Birkholm, Rasmus Ellegaard Jørgensen and Kim Jordemann Hansen - from Svendborg Tekniske Gymnasium in Denmark are PetroChallenge International Champions 2012 and winners of the trophy and £1000 in prize money.

Oildivers won the big Danish national PetroChallenge competition in 2011 and were competing against three other national PetroChallenge champion teams representing UK, Iceland, and Norway. The final was organized at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London on 28 January 2012.

After the first challenge to find sedimentary basins, UK and Denmark were in the lead with 91 Credibility Point (CP) each, but Norway (89 CP) and Iceland (77 CP) were not far behind.

In the second challenge to bid for licenses all teams managed to identify the two best available blocks, but Denmark was the only team to identify the third best block, and therefore soared ahead scoring the maximum achievable 300 CP. Moreover, UK and Denmark managed to score highest in their Corporate Social Responsibility projects and maintain their leading Credibility Score rating.

With the highest credibility, the virtual Government awarded UK and Denmark what from the seismic and geological interpretations looked like the best two blocks, and after intense negotiations all teams started drilling.

Oil and gas was found in all awarded blocks, but it turned out that the Danes' block was the best one with an estimated value of $10.3 billion compared to UK's $1.8B valuation.

The experienced OilSim facilitators at the final noted that the Danish team had come to London well prepared. Apart from being very well organized they had created some ingenious low-tech tools to speed up the analysis of the geological, geophysical and environmental data.

Even though Nicolai, Rasmus and Kim were clearly ahead at this point, all was not over. Greater blocks were still at stake, but again the Danes managed to leverage their great analytical abilities and tools. They located the best block in the second licensing round and were the only ones to bid for it. They drilled all necessary wild-cat and appraisal wells, getting the value of their second block up to $9.9B.

There were many other good blocks available, and even though the other teams all showed great skills and diligence they were unable to match the Danes. The team that came closest in block valuation was the Norwegian team with a $4.4B estimated value of their second license.

A lot of intra-team investments were made, but it did not have a deciding impact on the final result. The Danes won with an impressive 11202% return on investment (ROI). The final ranking was as follows:

1. DENMARK - 11202%

Nicolai Liborius Birkholm, Rasmus Ellegaard Jørgensen, Kim Jordemann Hansen

2. NORWAY - 5144%

Ådne Aarthun Jacobsen, Markus Obrestad Randen, Ingrid Øygard, Maren Ølberg

3. UK - 4611%

John Angus Robert Addlesse, Victoria Elyanna Allan, Robert Alexander Bryce, Jason Johnstone

4. ICELAND - 3692%

Dóra Björg Björnsdóttir, Siggerður Aðalsteinsdóttir

Over the last 5 months, over 3000 high school students have participated in PetroChallenges across Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the UK as part of the oil and gas industry’s pursuit of reaching out and finding future personnel.

Using OilSim, the computer based simulation developed by Simprentis, PetroChallenge immerses the students in an engaging and dynamic learning experience.

The 2-day events have given all involved an overview of the oil and gas industry and hands-on experience of team work, strategic planning, financial management, analytical thinking, critical decision making and risk assessment versus potential return on investment.

The sponsors, OLF of Norway, OPITO and Imperial College in the UK, Orkustofnun in Iceland, as well as Danish Maersk Oil, DONG, and the Technical University of Denmark have all been supporting this event for the past 4 years.

Simprentis' Director of Operations, Paula Sturdy, who was facilitating the event, said:

“Bringing these teams together in a fantastic capital City like London, really opens their eyes to a world of opportunities that the oil and gas industry can offer.  In fact, the PetroChallenge International competition may well inspire them to continue on their career journey around the world with oil and gas.”