Almost $300,000 in scholarship funds were awarded to five institutions by the Permian Basin International Oil Show Wednesday at the University of Texas Permian Basin Engineering Building.
This year’s gift totals $282,000 and the awardees were Odessa College, UTPB, Midland College, Desk and Derrick and Texas Tech University.
OC, UTPB and MC received $80,000 each. Texas Tech received $35,000 and Desk and Derrick netted $7,000.
This brings the grand total since 2007 to $1.4 million dollars.
Executive Director of the Permian Basin International Oil Show Tony Fry said one of the organization’s articles of incorporation and bylaws is to provide education, information and activities directly related to the oil and gas industry.
“We think it’s very important that we jump in and try to help get the people coming up behind us trained and ready to go,” Fry said.
Larry Richards, PBIOS president for 2022-23, and past President Tommy Pipes made the presentations.
The primary purpose of the PBIOS, which takes place during October in odd-numbered years, is to provide education, information, and activities directly related to the oil and gas industry.
Since 2006, the PBIOS has steadily increased the gifts given to each institution. This year’s donations bring the total to $1,480,000 dollars.
“The Permian Basin is where oilfield innovation and technology pair with the entrepreneurial spirit and amazing work ethos of West Texas. The young men and women educated in our local colleges and universities play a vital role in the success of our industry and our region. The PBIOS board is honored to play a small role in helping these institutions continue to grow and prosper. We fund programs at each school that are critical for the future of innovation which is urgently needed to meet the growing energy demands of our nation,” Richards said in a news release.
Richards said they are honored to provide these funds to these organizations.
“I don’t think you guys realize the impact for our community and for our industry and we sincerely appreciate it and we’re acknowledging that appreciation with a check; putting our money where our mouth is,” Richards said.
UTPB Dean of the College of Engineering George Nnanna said the scholarship was a great opportunity for students.
“With this scholarship students can be … supported for their tuition and they can buy books and not worry so much about going to school and having a full-time job …,”Nnanna said.
He added that more than 160 students have benefited from this and that is amazing, because for the most part they have graduated and are working in the Permian Basin community.
With this contribution, Nnanna said at least 26-27 students will benefit.
Richards said it was a challenge to raise the funds this year because they had three years of expenses and only one show worth of revenues.
“And we chose to do it as a board of directors because we think that’s really important for the community, but it wasn’t an easy decision so I was quite proud of our board that we chose to do that and maintain that same level. It would have been easy to say, ‘Oh COVID’ and that would have been the excuse why we didn’t do that. But it does go directly back to our mandate of pouring back into the community and the industry,” Richards said.
