BP presents Fletcher with $4 million donation

“Friday the 13th is starting to become one of my favorite days,” L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College Chancellor Travis Lavigne said as he accepted a $4 million check from BP Gulf of Mexico Regional Production Unit President James Dupree at the BP Houma Operations Center on Friday.

The gift, which Dupree described as an investment for the future of the entire oil and gas industry, is intended to finance construction of a 4,000-square-foot Integrated Production Center on the new Fletcher Campus, where a $19.1 million, 90,000-square-foot facility is presently being built along La. Highway 311 at Weatherford Road.

BP funding is designated as including $3 million intended for construction of dedicated laboratories, classrooms and office space. The additional $1 million is to be spent on equipment.

Lavigne said the $4 million BP gift is conditional upon Fletcher securing matching funds from the state. “It is a project predicated on $7 million for construction and $1 million for equipment,” he said. We are putting a capital outlay request in [to the Louisiana legislature] for this year and hope [funding] will come before the end of the year.”

Discussion of the Integrated Production Center between BP and Fletcher has been taking place for approximately two years and the close proximity of the two campuses made for an appealing package. Fletcher already uses the BP Operations Learning Center to conduct integrated production classes.

“Each day at the Houma Learning Center we train dozens of men and women in process safety and operations systems,” Dupree said. “While technology is important it cannot replace well trained and skilled workers. BP is a math and science company … and it is important to invest in all stages of education.”

Dupree said that BP will hire more than 800 high school and college graduates this year and wants experienced personnel as well. “That’s why our partnership with Fletcher is so important to us. Not just to BP but the industry as well. We need to renew that workforce in the future.”

The BP president, who leads the largest lease holding company and leading oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, predicted increased oil and gas activity in the Gulf for 2012. “We are spending close to $5 billion annually in the Gulf of Mexico and plan to continue,” he said.

BP currently has five rigs active in the Gulf and intends to increase that to eight by the end of the year. One rig that moved to West Africa when the U.S. federal government placed a deepwater drilling ban on the industry is expected to return to the Gulf, according to Dupree. “That’s our signal of commitment. We need an education partner and a state of the art facility to train petro-tech workers. That’s why we are making this investment with Fletcher,” he said.

BP and Fletcher will also work jointly to present petro-technical opportunities to high school students through the new facility.

“BP [is] our largest private industry donor,” Lavigne said. “It has contributed more than $1 million during the last four years. This is really historical. The $4 million donation is phenomenal. It will allow us to construct a second building on a new campus site.”

South Central Industrial Association Executive Director Jane Arnette said that her organization has an opportunity to work with Fletcher and BP through the new program and center. “We’ve already brought [high school] students to the BP facility,” she said. “We will be promoting the [Fletcher and BP integrated production] program.”

“This gives our coastal improvement program a tremendous shot in the arm,” Terrebonne Economic Development Authority CEO Steve Vassallo said. “We’ve already met with a maritime company that is looking to expand [in Terrebonne Parish] and one of the things they talked about was work skills. So this is wonderful timing.”

Integrated production work begins with students learning the industry and technological terminology involved, along with principles of oil and gas production. “We are really excited about BP and this donation.” Fletcher Integrated Production Technology Department Head Alvin Justelien said. “It will insure the success of our students when they get out in the field.”

“BP’s corporate presence and investment in the Houma-Thibodaux region is absolutely mind boggling,” Terrebonne School District Superintendent Philip Martin said. “Their investment in education, the investment in our young people, the investment in our community, I can’t say enough.”

Martin explained that through program arrangements with Fletcher, high school juniors and seniors have an opportunity to receive training in a technical area that leads to productive employment.

“It is exciting that our young people will be able to be a part of that,” Martin said. “I don’t know if that opportunity is available in many parts of the country as a high school student can be actively engaged with a technical college where a worldwide corporate partner is involved. It keeps our best and brightest [in the area]. We are going to make sure our kids take advantage of that.”

“What I find attractive in this is how Fletcher is maturing as an institution,” Nicholls State University President Stephen Hulbert said. “Everything it does in the long run is going to help Nicholls. My experience is that if you give a person an opportunity at a post-secondary education, whether it is a two-year degree or certificate, you whet their appetites and a number of them keep going on. You see people coming off the oil rigs after a career there, getting a [four] year college degree and getting on with their lives. That’s what it is all about.”

“This is a great day,” Lavigne said. “It marks the culmination of several years of support from BP. They have already contributed over $1 million to the operation of integrated production technology where we train deepwater production operators. I thought it would be years before we had a second building on this campus, but BP has come through and they are committed to this integrated technology program.”

Last year BP offered Fletcher $250,000 to begin its support of the school’s integrated production. Lavigne said that presentation was also conducted on a Friday the 13th. Although no groundbreaking date has been announced, Lavigne said if all goes as planned, construction of the new facility could be completed by the end of 2013.