14 February 2019
On Sunday 25 November 2018 15 students from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg set out for Vienna
to visit OMV in Austria. Most of them are upcoming geophysicists in the Bachelor or Master
programme. The excursion had been planned by the EAGE Student Chapter Freiberg with and was made possible through the EAGE Student Fund. The
ESF is therefore happy to share the experiences of the students through this
report.
The main purpose of getting profound insights into seismic hydrocarbon
and geothermal exploration
by means of vibrator trucks. In addition, the excursion also provided students the chance to experience the dimensions of industry
surveys and furthermore, to establish personal contacts to OMV and ask specific
A company presentation was given next and while enjoying some coffee and sweets
we found out more about the project: To ensure the security of gas supply in the future,
OMV performs seismic measurements north of Vienna as an extension of the survey
it represents the largest seismic exploration in Austria so far.
Following the presentation, we moved out into the field by car to a geophone
which are connected to a flash drive. In total, 720,000 geophones are placed around a
by the fleet of
The most fascinating part of the field trip was witnessing the power such a vehicle can release
into the earth. Standing close by, it felt like an earthquake was rattling the ground
time delay of
The target of this measurement
which are located at a depth between 4 and 6 km. At the same time, Peak Particle
Generally, OMV values Health, Safety, Security
of landowners.
After lunch, we stopped by at the Recording Truck. Each vibrator transmits its exact position
to the truck, so the coordinators know where the exploration crew is located and can
can be monitored.
The trip was concluded by a visit
record the noise triggered for example by a storm. These geophones transmit the
noise exceeds a certain level.
In the
could ask specific questions and got an
As a part of our course of study in Freiberg, we regularly participate in smaller
scale. It allowed us to get insights into the industry’s ways of handling such a large project.
Many thanks to OMV for this interesting excursion and to our sponsors: EAGE Student Fund,
Verein Freunde und Förderer der TU Bergakademie (VFF) and TU Freiberg’s Institute of Geophysics!
Throughout the course of the year, the EAGE Student Fund supports a
number of
work projects. The fund is looking for new initiatives where a limited donation
7 February 2019
The Laurie Dake Challenge, previously known as the Field Challenge, is a fully integrated evaluation
cooperation between students and various
over the years.
In the first phase of the challenge, students will have to assess the prospectivity of an area
based on relatively sparse and limited data: it will be essential to
of the regional geology, to analyze the petroleum system(s) to evaluate its (their) probability
In the second phase, a relatively large amount of data and participants will need to ponder their
analysis by acknowledging the uncertainties which affect their work.
We celebrate the selection on the best ten entries. The remaining candidates will receive a
comprehensive dataset in the second phase of selection, which will allow teams to
The ten teams moving on the next stage of the competition are:
IFP School, France;
Dalhousie University, Canada;
Curtin University, Australia;
University Gadjah Mada( team 2), Indonesia;
Fluminense Federal University, Brazil;
Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia;
University of Stavanger, Norway;
Petroleum University of Technology (PUT), Iran;
Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia;
and Mexican Institute of Petroleum, Mexico.
This contest would not be possible without the support of BP supporting the challenge with
the challenging dataset, as well as the Students Affairs Committee who worked hard to
prepare the 2019 Laurie Dake Challenge.
31 January 2019
Student Lecture Tours allow students to participate in a half-day course
taught by expert geoscientists. In 2018 the ESF supported tours in Europe
and Asia Pacific, resulting in lectures at 12 different universities.
In order to gain support from the ESF, a student tour requires a declaration
of interest from several universities from the same region. This proposal
can come from both the university itself or a student chapter willing to
organise the lecture. The ESF accepts hosting applications throughout the
year. However, we recommend universities and chapters to make these
declarations well before the start of the academic year.
Learn more about becoming an SLT host.
A declaration of interest to host does not automatically mean the ESF will
award the request as it depends on the availability of the lecturer, topic
and interests of other universities in the same country or region.
If approved, the ESF support covers fee and travel costs of the
instructor. It cannot make contributions to catering, room rental or
equipment for the lecture.
UPDATE: the call for participants for the Laurie Dake Challenge has been
closed. Make sure to join us for the finals at the EAGE Annual in London,
June 2019!
We are already looking forward to meeting the best of our student community at the next year’s finals in London!