Students in West Virginia University’s Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering will have access to state-of-the-art equipment in its Natural Gas Measurement Laboratory, thanks to two recent gifts made by a long-time supporter of the program.

Dominion Resources and the Dominion Foundation provided $50,000 in funds and another $150,000 in donated equipment to the lab, along with technical support to oversee installation of the equipment.

“The company’s involvement with the lab dates back to 1984 when it played a critical role in completing an initial upgrade project,” said Brian Sheppard, vice president of operations for Dominion Transmission. “We are confident the new upgrades will keep the facility at the highest level of industry standards as it has maintained over the years.

“Dominion Resources and the Dominion Foundation are proud to have an opportunity to provide grant funding to the WVU Department Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering,” Sheppard added. “Our support of the program has enabled WVU to continue educating and graduating natural gas engineers of the highest quality. Additionally, it has made it possible for Dominion to recruit many of these high-quality students to our ranks.”

The natural gas industry operates and maintains a complex network of production, distribution and delivery system, including more than 2 million miles of distribution pipelines and 300,000miles of transmission lines, to meet the growing demand for natural gas. Gas flow measurement is the critical component of this system.

“Accurate gas flow measurement, which has enormous financial significance, is challenging because of the extremes of both high and low flow rates in this natural gas delivery system,” said Kashy Aminian, professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering at WVU. “The Natural Gas Measurement Laboratory at WVU provides students with the opportunity to become familiar with the gas flow measurement and control technology through hand-on experiments.”

According to Sam Ameri, chair of the Department, this is just the latest in a long line of support the program has received from Dominion.

“Over the years, Dominion has provided many scholarships, endowments and technical assistance to the Department,” Ameri said. “We appreciate Dominion’s support and generosity to make this lab, which is already one of the best in the country, even better.”

The gifts were made in conjunction with “A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University.” The $750-million comprehensive campaign being conducted by the WVU Foundation on behalf of the University runs through December 2015.

For more information on “A State of Minds” visit www.astateofminds.com.

-WVU-

mcd/07/29/14

CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon, Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
304.293.4086, Mary.Dillon@mail.wvu.edu

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