MOL Group Awards the Winners of the UPPP Competition 2015

BUDAPEST, Hungary, December 9, 2015

• The team "Oil Fnatic" from Hungary won the international oil and gas talent acquisition competition UPPP 2015. 
• This year the number of applications for UPPP reached record levels: 1,114 teams from 53 countries faced real-life business challenges.  
• The top three teams were awarded with total €25,000 and the most talented from the competition may get the opportunity to join MOL Group on its "UPPP Technical Placement Programme".  

Today MOL Group, a leading international oil and gas company, proudly announced the winners of the UPPP competition. The team Oil Fnatic with three students from the University of Miskolc in Hungary ranked as the number one team of the UPPP competition, beating 1,113 participating teams. During the two-day live final event in Budapest the top five teams competed by solving real-life tasks that face the oil and gas industry.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151209/294582 )

"We congratulate the top teams for winning this unique competition and thank all participants for the energy and hard work they demonstrated over the past few months. Our talent acquisition programs prove that MOL Group found a successful and adventurous way to attract young talents, which help us to overcome the critical generation gap the global oil and gas industry faces. We are proud to see that we managed to increase the number of participants and for the first time we opened up the program to all the countries in the world.", said Zdravka Demeter Bubalo, HR Vice President of MOL Group.

This year the number of participants increased significantly, from 972 teams in 2014, to 1,114 teams in 2015. Students with a major field of study of geoscience, petro-technical or engineering project management were invited to enrol in the online competition from September 24^th to October 15^th 2015. The teams had to compete in virtual scenarios online, solving industrial and strategic tasks developed by MOL Group. The top five teams competed in the live finals in Budapest for a total prize pot of €25,000. Talented professionals from the best teams earned the chance to receive a job offer from MOL Group and kick-start their career with the 18-month "UPPP Technical Placement Programme".

 "We still cannot believe that we won the UPPP competition 2015, but we are really excited. Competing with more than 3000 students from 53 countries was a great challenge, and we feel very honoured to be on the first place. We participated in UPPP to begin a real adventure and progress our future career. The competition proved to be a challenging and intense time, but we enjoyed working together as a team on the project and present our ideas to the audience. It feels great to be acknowledged for something we are passionate about.", said team Oil Fnatic.

Second place goes to Geomatrix from AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland, and the third place goes to Next Oil Generation team from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. MOL Group's programme UPPP is in line with the corporate strategy: MOL Group attracts top talents through its innovative, award-winning talent acquisition programmes.