Lagos, Nigeria, March 31, 2010: The NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture has been honored with the Platinum Sponsor’s Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).

The Joint Venture was recognized for its contribution to the success of the 2010 edition of the Africa Region Imperia Barrel Award (IBA) competition which took place in Lekki, Lagos on March 19, 2010. The regional finals of the competition attracted entries from nine Earth Science/Geology departments from universities in Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt.

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, emerged overall winner, while Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, and Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, were first and second runners up respectively. By the result, Obafemi Awolowo which also won the competition in 2009 will represent the region at the AAPG IBA global competition in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, on April 9 and 10, 2010.

Mrs. Adedoja Ojelabi, the 2010 IBA coordinator and secretary/treasurer AAPG Africa Region, said “Thanks to Chevron and other generous sponsors, we were able to transport, accommodate and feed 45 post-graduate students and advisors from across Africa and also provide technical and logistics support to the participating universities.”

The NNPC/Chevron JV has supported the IBA competition over the years in line with its commitment to improve the quality of education in Nigeria. It was honored with the AAPG’s Platinum Sponsor’s Award, on the strength of its exceptional support for the 2010 competition.

Employees of the NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture played significant roles in ensuring the success of the competition by exposing participating students and faculty members to industry standards and supporting them to improve their technical and presentation skills.

The employees include Williams Odufisan and Itunnu Oyebanji who provided technical assistance for the team from Cairo University that was unable to physically attend and hence participated via teleconference. The competition also benefitted from the organizational support of Mrs. Iyabo Ogun, Mr. Femi Esan, Mr. Isaac Odeniyi, Mr. Clement Chukwuka, and Mr. Isaac Arowolo, the current president of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists.

Engr. Femi Odumabo is General Manager,Policy, Government & Public Affairs