Oil Companies Donate $16.5MM to Open Schools in Permian

The Permian Strategic Partnership, a group of 20 Permian Basin energy companies, will donate $16.5 million to help open 14 schools in Midland and Odessa by 2025, the coalition announced Sunday.

PSP, formed last year, will help bring IDEA public schools to the Permian beginning in the fall of 2020.

PSP’s donation, along with private funding from businesses, foundations and individuals, is allowing the project to move forward. A total of 14 schools will be opened at seven sites across Midland and Odessa by the 2024-25 school year. First will be IDEA Travis Academy and College Prep in partnership with Midland ISD in August of 2020. The following year, IDEA will expand to Odessa.

Production in the Permian has been red-hot the past couple of years, which has caused an influx of workers and families to the area. As a result, home prices have skyrocketed and families have been waitlisted for childcare services.

Earlier this year, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and EOG Resources, Inc. helped to alleviate the childcare challenges by sponsoring the opening of a school in Midland.

“Improving public education is vital to the success of our communities and is a top priority for PSP and our member companies,” PSP chairman Don Evans said in a release. “With the broad community support for IDEA and the fact that bringing high-performing charter schools into a district is proven to have a positive effect on all district schools, we are delighted to financially support IDEA’s expansion into the Permian Basin. This will be our first major funding commitment since establishing the Partnership last fall, and we feel it’s very appropriate that our first investment is for the education of our children, who are the future of this region.”

PSP's CEO Tracee Bentley told Rigzone that future endeavors by the organization are guided by its desire to make the Permian Basin a world-class place to live.

"The Permian provides energy the world needs, supports and creates tens of thousands of local jobs and generates billions in state and local tax revenues," she said. "But the potential of the region will only be fully realized if significant infrastructure and service challenges are addressed, and we seek to respond to those challenges when we undertake PSP initiatives."

The PSP’s members are:

• Anadarko
• Apache
• BPX Energy
• Chevron
• Cimarex Energy
• Concho Resources
• ConocoPhillips
• Devon Energy
• Diamondback Energy
• Encana
• Endeavor Energy Resources
• EOG Resources
• XTO Energy
• Halliburton
• Occidental
• Parsley Energy
• Pioneer Natural Resources
• Plains All American Pipeline
• Schlumberger
• Shell