The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association (LMOGA) have announced that two new educational institutions have joined API’s Minority Serving Institution (MSI) initiative.
Southern University and A&M College and Grambling State University have now become official participants in the initiative, which makes API’s standards freely accessible to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The initiative has a mission to develop and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the natural gas and oil industry workforce by providing API’s industry standards catalog to accredited higher education institutions, the API highlights.
“API is proud to make our standards catalog available to Southern and Grambling in support of their work to educate and prepare our nation’s future energy workforce,” Debra Phillips, the senior vice president of API’s Global Industry Services, said in an organization statement.
“A diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce is an essential part of our industry’s future success and API is honored to play a small part in supporting progress toward these students’ bright futures,” Phillips added.
LMOGA President and General Counsel, Tyler Gray, said, “as the oil and natural gas industry continues to evolve, the API standards seek to advance the safety of industry operations and encourage environmental protection and sustainability across the industry”.
“We are proud to work with API to provide these standards as an investment in the next generation of energy workers and the future of the natural gas oil industry,” he added.
Louisiana state Senator Ed Price and state Representative Ken Brass advocated for ensuring students at the two schools have access to the API’s industry standards.
“Making the API standards available to the engineering department at no cost truly ensures that the next generation of oilfield workers are properly equipped to have a safe and prosperous energy career,” Price said.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the oil and natural gas industry to build a bright future for all Louisianans … I am thankful for the investment to my alma mater and the continued support for diversity within the industry from LMOGA and API,” he added.
Brass said the partnership between API and both universities “will provide our students with an additional resource that can be used to enhance their technical knowledge and prepare them as they move into their careers in engineering”.
The API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which it says supports more than ten million U.S. jobs. The organization has 600 members which produce, process, and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, according to the API, which was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 700 standards to this day.
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