Payday: The Dan Hughes Story

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MOVING FORWARD AND
GIVING BACK
With that influx of cash, Dan began making some charitable
contributions. One such contribution was to Texas A&M University
for the restoration of the Military Walk through the center of
the old campus. With a gift of $4 million, this walk was
reconstructed and has turned out to be the centerpiece of Texas
A&M University. Also, Dan, Dudley, and Dan Allen made a $1-
million donation to the Department of Geology to form a school
which would coordinate geophysics, geology, and petroleum
engineering. The combined courses are all necessary for present
day exploration and horizontal drilling in the oil business. The
school is named The Berg-Hughes Center. It has turned out to be
a popular school and is being supported by major companies and
oil-related companies.
Most of the conventional oil fields of the world have been
found and world oil production began to decline during the
beginning of the twenty-first century. The demand for oil is
continually increasing due to the rapid escalation of living
standards and use of automobiles in third world countries such
as China and India. The only large conventional oil reserves
unexplored at this time appear to be in the deep waters offshore
at ocean depths of 1,000 feet to 10,000 feet. The new horizontal
drilling and fracing technologies have opened up millions of
acres of oil and gas producing shales in the U.S. and around
the world. These new techniques have made it possible to
make excellent producing wells from formations that before
could not be produced. The onshore production in the U.S.
has increased by 40% in the last five years by using these methods.
The Berg-Hughes center is designed to prepare students to enter
into this new concept of petroleum exploration. At present, these
courses can be part of a geology, geophysical, or petroleum
engineering degree.
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