Sultan Qaboos University team has secured the first place for the fourth consecutive year in the Imperial Barrel Award competition organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Nine universities from the Middle East region participated in the competition includeing Sultan Qaboos University and German University from Oman, Kuwait University from Kuwait, Khalifa University from Emirates, King Abdul Aziz from Saudi Arabia, Lebanese University from Lebanon, Yarmouk, Hasimite, and Jorrdan University from Jordan.  The 2019's competition took place at the German University in Muscat on March 10, 2019 where the university teams presented their projects in front of judges from oil industry. The Sultan Qaboos University team will represent the region in the global competition and in the AAPG annual meeting, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas 19-22 May 2019.

The team consists of the students: Manar Al-Ghailani, Elham El-Nadabiah, Nahla Al-Mandhariya, Aaisha Al-Aamri, and Shifa Al-Abri. The team prepared for the competition under the supervision of the Dr. Mohammed Farfour from Earth Science Department.