Oil-Rich University Aims to Unlock More Wealth From Shale Acres
- Pancaked layers of oil-soaked rocks forcing lease updates
- Market downturn provides an opportunity to renegotiate terms
Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., speaks during the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs commencement at Riverside Church in New York, U.S., on Monday, May 17, 2010. Pandit earned a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1976, an M.S. in electrical engineering in 1977, an M.B.A. in 1980, and a Ph.D. in business in 1986.
Photographer: Daniel AckerThe University of Texas is looking for new ways to cash in on 2.1 million acres of prime oil assets obtained through land grants more than a century ago.
What is now viewed as some of the richest oil land in the world was initially seen as a money maker from cattle grazing. After 1923, when petroleum was discovered in the Permian Basin, a wave of wildcatters descended on the state university seeking leases. By 2014, the annual royalties from about 200 drillers had exploded past $1 billion.