Students win Top Poster Awards at Annual Africa Oil Exploration and Production Conference


Students win Top Poster Awards at Annual Africa Oil Exploration and Production Conference
Winners Include Two Ph.D. Students and One Undergraduate

Two University of Houston Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Ph.D. students and one undergraduate student placed first, second and third at the 13th Annual Conference on African Exploration and Production. The conference, called “Africa: A World of Opportunities,” was jointly organized by the Houston Geological Society and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain. The meeting was held on September 9-10 at The Westin Houston, Memorial City.

The conference drew 300 participants and covered all aspects of African exploration and production with particular emphasis on new ideas for plays and prospects, the geology of the continent and its conjugate margins, and application of emerging technologies.

EAS Ph.D. student, Kyle Reuber, served on the steering committee of the Houston Geological Society that organized the conference.

UH Student Winners:

First Place – Patrick Loureiro
Patrick LoureiroA first-year Ph.D. geology student, Loureiro took first place honors with his poster: “Regional Review of Carbonate and Travertine Reservoirs in Post-Rift sag Basin Settings of Africa and South America.” In his poster, he compared data from highly productive carbonate reservoirs in sub-salt sag basins on the conjugate margins of Brazil and West Africa.

Second Place – Naila Dowla
Naila DowlaA first-year Ph.D. geology student, Dowla captured second place honors with her poster: “An Isostatically-Corrected Top of Oceanic Crust Map for the Rifted-Passive Margin of Mauritania.” In her poster, she attempted to better define the outer, continental limit for deep-water exploration in Mauritania by an analysis of satellite bathymetry, gravity and sediment thickness data. She also participated in a one-day conference short course on “Petroleum Basins of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Third Place – Derek Scott
Derek ScottScott, a junior undergraduate geology major, placed third with his poster: “A Comparison of Surficial Lithology of Modern Watersheds in Equatorial West Africa to Productivity of Offshore Reservoirs.” He predicted productive offshore areas based on a GIS analysis of rock types eroded by modern West African river systems.