OIL BOOM PUMPS MONEY INTO UT/A&M

  

A major oil boom has helped pump dollars into an endowment that supports the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, helping it to hit a record $14.8 billion.

In the fiscal year that ended in August, royalties from oil and gas pumped out of state land put $648 million in the Permanent University Fund. Last year that total was $506 million, and in 2009 just $279 million.

The Dallas Morning News reports Saturday that UT System officials say combined with investment returns, the fund is up 9 percent over 2012 and 53 percent over 2009.

UT System manages some 2.1 million acres of land in the state's oil-rich West Texas Permian basin. New hydraulic fracturing technologies and techniques have helped drillers draw oil from once out-of-reach rock formations