Two new Louisiana historically black colleges have joined the American Petroleum Institute Minority Serving Institution initiative, designed to promote diversity in the oil and gas workforce.
Students at Southern University and Grambling State University will participate in the initiative, which makes API’s standards freely accessible to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions. The joint effort between API and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association supports API’s commitment to expanding diversity in talent critical to future workforce demands.
“As the oil and natural gas industry continues to evolve, the API standards seek to advance the safety of industry operations and encourage environmental protection and sustainability across the industry,” LMOGA President and General Counsel Tyler Gray said in the announcement. “We are proud to work with API to provide these standards as an investment in the next generation of energy workers and the future of the natural gas oil industry.”
The MSI initiative’s mission is to develop and promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the natural gas and oil industry workforce by providing API’s industry standards catalog, with over 700 standards, to accredited higher education institutions.
API has established and maintained standards for the natural gas and oil industry since 1924. API standards help enhance operational safety, environmental protection and sustainability, while working to ensure that industry knowledge is accurately transferred amongst engineers and across organizations.
LMOGA, founded in 1923, is a trade association representing the oil and gas industry operating in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, including exploration and production, refining, transportation, marketing and mid-stream companies as well as other firms in the fields of law, engineering, environment, financing and government relations.
