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SIFT Student Industry Field Trip

2010 Chair: Dawn Hodgins
2010 Committee Members: Allan Carswell, Alyssa Middleton, Andrea Marsh, Andrew Cook, Dayna Rhoads, Debbie Legaspi, Denise Hodder, Heather Slavinksi, Ian DeWolfe, Indy Raychaudhuri, John Lefebure, Keith Yaxley, Meghan O'Reilly, Melanie Regehr, Michael DesRoches, Mitch Allison, Steve Dryer.

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The 2010 edition of the CSPG SIFT program, which ran from May 2nd to 14th, was a tremendous success. The SIFT program has phenomenal volunteer and industry support with 18 committee members involved in planning and organizing and 26 industry professionals providing lectures and field trips. In addition to an outstanding volunteer base, financial support from our industry sponsors allows the CSPG to continue to offer this flagship program every year. Our major industry sponsors for 2010 were: ConocoPhillips Canada, EnCana Corporation, Shell Canada Limited, Imperial Oil Limited, Devon Energy and Talisman Energy. SIFT was also fortunate to receive in kind donations by Enerplus, Crescent Point, Golder Associates, Weatherford Canada, Suncor Energy and Sundog Printing. On behalf of the entire SIFT committee and the CSPG, I want to thank all the individuals and companies for their continued support of this incredible program.

The CSPG SIFT 2010 committee hosted 31 undergraduate students enrolled in geosciences programs from across Canada. This year, we are pleased to welcome Mount Royal University into the program and look forward to having them participate in years to come. The 31 budding geoscientists came to Calgary for a two week introduction to the Canadian petroleum industry through classroom lectures, core workshops, an exploration game, field trips and many opportunities to talk to professionals working in our industry. Throughout the two weeks, students attended lectures presented by industry experts with topics including well logging and log interpretation, carbonate and clastic reservoirs, geophysics, well site operations, heavy oil and more. To reflect the current hot topics in the industry, we added three new talks this year; an Environmental Talk, Unconventional Resources and Global Energy Outlook. In addition to the lectures, students were able to tour the demonstration rig at SAIT, attend the CSPG Convention for a day and had time for a few field trips, including the legendary four-day trip through the Rockies and a tour of the Atlas Coal Mine in East Coulee Alberta and a Behind the Scenes Tour at the Royal Tyrrell Museum (due to weather and safety conditions, the field trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park was cancelled and with quick impromptu planning by the committee, we were able to make alternate arrangements. Plan B was a success and the students loved the tours of the coal mine and museum). With all this activity, students still found time to work on the exploration game and attend a Student-Industry Wine and Cheese Reception. Each year, the SIFT Committee complements the two-week SIFT program with a Summer Job Program. The goal of this component of SIFT is to place newly trained SIFT graduates with oil and gas companies in Calgary so that they can continue the learning experience. This year, eight students found summer positions. Each year, we continue to look for companies willing to hire our SIFT graduates. If your company is able to offer a position, please contact the CSPG office for more information.

A large component of the SIFT trip is having the students apply concepts learned on the trip to an intense, hands on exploration game. The game teaches students some of the realities of the oil and gas business. Teams of three to four students form a company and are given a small land base and seed capital to start exploring and building their company. They use real well log data to make interpretations of the geology and identify "sweet spots" which they use to bid on additional land, drill wells and structure business partnerships. At the end of the program an experienced industry panel judges the interpretations and success of the individual companies and awards the "Best Technical" company and the "Most Financially Successful" company.

The SIFT Committee kept the students very busy throughout the two weeks but they also had time to bond with one another and share their many new experiences. As with years passed, many of the students have formed friendships and connections that will last for the rest of their lives and hopefully, a significant number of them will find jobs in Canada's petroleum industry. The SIFT Facebook page continues to grow with 100 members and counting. If you are a former SIFTee, we encourage you to join the growing list of names on the SIFT Facebook page. The CSPG and SIFT committee would like to host a SIFT Reunion in 2011 and we need to build our guest list! Visit our Facebook Page! In closing, many thanks to all the SIFT committee members that have worked on the committee over the past 32 years. The organizing committee puts in a huge effort every year and SIFT is such a success as a result of their hard work. As a committee we strive to maintain the integrity of SIFT and we continue to evolve and improve on this CSPG/ETF flagship program. We look forward to planning and welcoming the next group of students in 2011, who will join the growing ranks of SIFT graduates.

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SIFT: The School of Hard Rocks

This 5 minute video highlights many components of this 10 day Student Industry Field Trip. It will explain why this program exists and what it is meant to achieve; volunteers and students will give you insight to why the program is so successful and enjoyed each year by so many students
View Video

 

Student Industry Field Trip (SIFT) Poster

English SIFT Poster (408kb PDF)

French SIFT Poster (423kb PDF)

 

For more information, please contact:

Dawn Hodgins, Imperial Oil Resources Canada
Tel: (403) 232-5931 Email: dawn.c.hodgins@exxonmobil.com