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Vision & Tradition Campaign Passes $750M Mark with Gift from Schlumberger

A $45.1 million gift from Schlumberger puts the campaign well over the three-quarters mark.

Student Research Students in the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering will be able to use some of the best software in the petroleum industry giving them a head start at their first job. 

May 15, 2011 | Written by Dailey Fuller

Texas Tech University System officials announced today (May 15) that they are more than three-quarters of the way to their $1 billion campaign goal thanks to generous donations from alumni and friends.

Putting the campaign well over the milestone mark was a $45.1 million gift of software from Schlumberger, which was accepted during a meeting of the TTU System Board of Regents on May 12. The gift brings the fundraising total for Vision & Tradition: The Campaign for Texas Tech to more than $770 million dollars.

Schlumberger's gift will benefit students and faculty in the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University. Included in the gift are new software modules that will add functionality and enhance the capabilities of 100 licenses of the company's ECLIPSE software currently used by the department.

"Thanks to the overwhelming support of our donors, I'm excited to announce that we have passed the $750 million mark in Vision & Tradition: The Campaign for Texas Tech," said TTU System Chancellor Kent Hance. "This generous gift from Schlumberger brings us significantly closer to our $1 billion goal and will provide access to industry-standard tools that will help us prepare students and support faculty research in the Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering."

The ECLIPSE family of reservoir simulation software, which includes the Petrel Reservoir Engineering Environment, allows students and researchers to create 3-D models of oil and gas reservoirs and use numerical simulation to model their behavior.

University administrators anticipate that experience with the widely-used software tools will make students more attractive to employers. Providing faculty with access to the software is expected to support current research efforts within the department and help secure future research funding.

TTU System officials announced Vision & Tradition: The Campaign for Texas Tech on Sept. 17, 2010. Funds raised by the campaign will support student scholarships, faculty endowments, research efforts and expanded facilities at all three system institutions, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Angelo State University.

Schlumberger is the world's leading oilfield services company, supplying technology, information solutions and integrated project management to customers in the oil and gas industry. Founded in 1926, the company employs more than 108,000 people working in approximately 80 countries.