The GWC'25 production team is preparing to go live. Photo: ROGII.
Benchmark your geosteering skills
The 2026 Geosteering World Cup (GWC’26) offers geologists more than a chance to compete for a title. It is an opportunity to test real-time decision-making, sharpen geosteering skills, benchmark performance against an international field, and experience how technology, including AI, is shaping the future of the profession
For geosteering geologists, few experiences can replicate the pressure of making critical decisions while a well is being drilled. The 2026 Geosteering World Cup (GWC’26) puts those skills to the test in a global, competitive environment and gives geologists a compelling reason to step outside their everyday workflows, to compete for the title GWC Champion of the World!
The annual competition brings together geosteerers from around the globe to steer both conventional and unconventional wells in new basins. In 2026, competitors will be challenged to balance in-zone percentage and rate of penetration (ROP) while making real-time decisions under pressure.
That format makes the World Cup particularly valuable for working geologists. Success in geosteering is not simply about interpreting data correctly; it is about making timely, defensible decisions with incomplete information. A competition environment exposes those decision-making habits in a way that routine operations may not. It can reveal whether a geologist tends to over-steer, reacts too slowly to changing evidence, or sacrifices accuracy for speed.
The GWC’26 is also an opportunity to benchmark skills. In 2025, more than 300 participants competed internationally, with the leading competitors demonstrating consistently high in-zone performance. The results showed that precision and consistency matter just as much as speed.
For professionals who want to strengthen their careers, that experience has value beyond the leaderboard. Competing demonstrates initiative, technical confidence, adaptability, and a willingness to continuously improve. It can also provide a useful talking point with employers, colleagues, and clients; particularly as geosteering becomes increasingly connected to digital workflows and advanced analytics.
The 2026 competition will bring back the ROGII droid competitor. Last year’s ROZONE came in 61st place. This year, ROGII’s AI bot, RUH-ROH, will take on humans. Will RUH-ROH come out ahead? Only time will tell.
GWC ’26 is for everyone, be it a novice or a world-class geosteerer. The event is free and competitors gain access to preparation resources and temporary StarSteer software.
For geosteering geologists, the question may therefore be less “Am I good enough to compete?” and more “What could I learn by competing?” The 2026 Geosteering World Cup is a rare chance to find out, while testing your skills against some of the best geosteering professionals in the world.
Register now for this free informational webinar on September 17th to learn more.
