IHS Inc. provides $1.25 million software to Texas Tech University

HOUSTON -- Engineering students at Texas Tech University will now have access to IHS Petra, a powerful software tool for geological, engineering and petrophysical analysis, thanks to a $1.25 million donation from IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the leading source of critical information and insight.

“We are pleased to be able to make this significant gift of IHS Petra to Texas Tech, which is a global leader in both education and research for the petroleum engineering community,” said Russ Sagert, V.P. of energy software products at IHS. “This software will ensure that Texas Tech students have industry-leading technology at their fingertips, and will help them transition to the workforce, since many oil and gas companies require their interpreters and engineers to have experience with our IHS applications, including IHS Petra.”

IHS Petra is a PC-based geological and engineering analysis software tool that is used by geoscientists and engineers to visualize, analyze and manage well production, well log, drilling, reservoir and other related information. The tool includes a database of more than 3.5 million current and historic well records from across the world.

“Many E&P companies, especially independents, use this IHS software,” said Marshall Watson, chair of the Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech. “Having basic knowledge of the insight and analysis it provides will give our undergraduate students a real competitive advantage in job placement.”

The license, valued at $1.25 million, will allow up to 150 students to work on the software at the same time. The department is one of the largest petroleum engineering programs in the U.S., and this software will be deployed in the new $22.8 million Terry Fuller Petroleum Engineering Research Building’s unique cluster of laboratories.

“Once implemented, we will use the software for teaching undergraduate classes,” Watson said. “Also, once data is assembled, it can be shared with other universities in an overall senior-design-project exchange plan to help each other with creating a portfolio of design projects.”