BP: UA's $500,000 partner

THE SPRING ISSUE (now that it's summer!) of AKRON, the University of Akron's alumni magazine, has a piece lauding "energy industry giant BP" for its $500,000 grant to the school's college of engineering for a corrosion engineering program. Awful timing, I'd say, for the announcement by UA, the magazine and, of course, the giant. According to the article, the gift is from BP Exploration's Inherently Reliable Facilities (IRF) Flagship Technology Program. (Emphasis mine.)

UA President Luis Proenza says he's proud of partnering with industry to create the materials of the future..."

And Simon Webster, vice president for BP's IRF program says, "As BP's operations move into more severe environments - deeper reservoirs, higher pressures, higher temperatures, higher fluid velocities - it needs materials and corrosion technologies to perform in these increasingly harsh environments."

That inherently explains everything.