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BP Taps into Community Good Will -- and Wells
WARREN, Ohio -- As BP America continues to assess the prospects of the Trumbull County acreage it has under lease, the energy giant sought to tap in to the community’s good will Wednesday by donating meat to two area agencies serving the needy.
BP’s director of government and public affairs, Curtis Thomas, delivered half of the meat processed from two cows and two pigs purchased during the livestock auction at the recent Trumbull County Fair to the Warren Family Mission on Route 422. The other half was to be delivered to Trumbull Mobile Meals.
“This is a perfect example of a win-win-win situation,” Thomas remarked. BP purchased the cows and pigs from the livestock auction at the fair, providing money for the owners to put toward college, a local processor cut the meat into the kinds of cuts requested by the nonprofits and the meat was donated to the agencies. The meat was processed into hamburger, roasts, hot dogs and hams.
The company made a similar purchase and donation last year.
Chris Gilger, executive director of the Warren Family Mission, said he is “humbled” and “shocked” that a large company like BP would think about a small feeding program like his. “We’re really blessed that they would come here and help us,” he said.
“It means a lot of relief for some families who are in need and have fallen on hard times for whatever reasons,” said Mayor Doug Franklin, who joined Thomas to unload the containers of meat at the mission. “What it also signifies is what kind of a community partner BP has been since they’ve come to our community. We’re very appreciative of it and there’ll be a lot of families and citizens that are served by the generosity of BP.”
The mission provides about 400 meals per day, Gilger said.
Some 1,600 households per month are served by the mission’s food pantry and the Elm Road meal site serves about 4,000 meals per month, reported Marnie Lake, front desk coordinator at the mission. Another 3,800 meals per month are served at the mission’s residential facility.
Questioned by The Business Journal, Thomas said BP continues with its appraisal program for the 105,000 acres it controls in Trumbull County. “We’re going to drill a total of eight wells before the end of the year,” he said. “Once we know what our reservoir capability is from those test wells we’ll make a determination on the size of our operation here, if we can have an operation in this area.” The decision will be based on whether BP finds the wet natural gas it is looking for in abundance. “That will make the difference in our play,” he said.
BP drilled its first well in April. “We’ll keep drilling those wells and we’ll find out what the reservoir capability is and we’ll know in December or January,” he said.
Thomas noted that BP follows production results that other companies hreport. “Some have been very positive. Some have been mediocre and some say they’re waiting for the infrastructure. But BP will make a determination on what we do in this area base on what our rocks tell us,” he said.
Should BP determine to move forward, it would work with midstream providers to get the extracted oil and gas to market.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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