Hess Corporation has promised to donate $4.4 million to support the University of Wyoming Center for Advanced Oil and Gas Technologies Nana Resolution Imaging Laboratory.

That donation will actually be doubled to $8.8 million under the state of Wyoming's matching fund program for UW energy programs. Greg Hill, Hess Vice President for Exploration and Production is a UW Alumnus. At Friday's announcement in the rotunda of the state Capitol Building, he said world energy demands are expected to increase 40% by 2030, adding that roughly a trillion barrels of oil and gas are currently thought to exist in what he termed "unconventional" reserves. But he said the major hurdle is that only about 10% of that can be recovered through current methods.

Hess said research such as that being conducted at UW is critical to finding ways to access a larger portion of those reserves, which will be needed to meet the world's growing energy demands. The announcement of Hess's donation follows the announcement earlier this week of a $2 million dollar donation from Ultra petroleum for research in unconventional energy extraction.

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