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Newfield Exploration Co. donated $250,000 Thursday to the Uintah Basin Applied Technology College to help build additional classroom and lab space for the school's Petroleum Technology Certificate Program, which is designed to meet specific needs of the oil and gas industry in the region.
Industry-related courses now being taught at the Vernal college either have outgrown their space or are being offered in areas not designed for the training, campus president Mark Walker said.
"The donation is generous," Walker said. "Newfield has become one of the heavy hitters in the expansion of the college."
Daryll Howard, vice president of Newfield Exploration's Rocky Mountain division, said the company views the college as an important resource "to train the future workforce for the energy industry."
Newfield, Utah's largest oil producer, has operated in eastern Utah's Uinta Basin since 2004.
The Texas-based company has an active drilling campaign under way across the region, developing more than 6,000 promising locations, company officials said. It expects to run at least eight oil-drilling rigs in the Uinta Basin this year, up from five in past years.
In January, the company announced a 10-year deal with HollyFrontier Corp. to provide the Woods Cross refinery with 20,000 barrels per day of black-wax and yellow-wax crude produced from Newfield's Uinta Basin properties.
Tesoro Corp., which is planning to invest $180 million to expand its Salt Lake City refinery's capacity to process the distinctive crude, has signed a similar agreement with the oil exploration and production company.
Newfield is engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids, with areas of operation in the Rocky Mountains, including eastern Utah; the Williston Basin of North Dakota; the Mid-Continent; and onshore Texas.
Internationally, Newfield focuses on offshore oil developments in Malaysia and China.
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