By: Emmanuel Utibe

On Saturday 15th April 2023, at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Team UI emerged victors at PetroQuiz organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigeria. 

PetroQuiz is the largest National contest organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers amongst the various schools that are their member chapters. The quiz involves subject areas such as Drilling, Reservoir, Mathematics, Geology, Petro-Physics, HPE, SPE knowledge, and General knowledge. The competition is held yearly as part of the Student Technical Symposium and Exhibition (STSE) put together by the SPE Nigeria Council. 

Mr. Awojinrin Gbenga (500Level Petroleum Engineering), Mr. Alexander Ifenaike (400Level Petroleum Engineering), Mr. Ikpabi Prince (400Level Petroleum Engineering), Mr. Nwoke Uchenna Donald (300Level Petroleum Engineering), and Mr. Balogun Abdulmumeen Abiodun (300Level Petroleum Engineering) are the contingents who represented Team UI.

The first rounds of the competition kicked off on Thursday 13th of May 2022. In the round of 16, the University of Ibadan entered the competition facing off with the University of Benin. They advanced past them to go on and face the University of Uyo(last year’s 1st runner-up) in the quarter-finals. Team UI then went on to beat the University of Lagos(last year’s 2nd runner-up) and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun(last year’s champions) in the semi-finals and finals respectively.

The first three schools in the competition -UI, FUPRE, and Unilag- are to proceed to San Antonio, Texas, USA to represent Africa in the international round of the PetroQuiz as part of the yearly SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition to be held from 16th to 18th of October, 2023.

In a statement, Mr. Gbenga Awojinrin, the captain of the UI team said “Winning this has been a long time coming. 8 years since this trophy came to UI and every member of the team was invested in dragging it back home this year if we had to. Our prep sessions gave us a lot of fun and bonding moments among team members. At SPEUI, we are big on building connections, and this conference, both the journey and the destination, was another opportunity to cement ties across levels. For me, getting to watch the other members of the team move stuff was nothing short of amazing. I will be graduating soon, but with the assurance that I am leaving the chapter in the hands of men I can trust.”