Many of Houston's largest energy companies are courting new college graduates, even as the oil and gas industry sheds workers by the thousands.

Rice University expects that its career fair in mid-September will draw almost 150 energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., Enterprise Products, Halliburton and Schlumberger. Demand is so intense, organizers say, that about 20 booths will have to be set up in a hallway.

Several energy companies keep coming back to campus despite oil's downturn because they need to maintain a talent pipeline, especially for hard-to-fill positions. Further, they want to nurture their collegiate ties so they will have first dibs on the best and brightest once the economy improves.

"They don't want to make the same mistake they made in the 1980s," said Nicole Van Den Heuvel, Rice's director of the Center for Career Development.

During that epic bust, many large energy companies eliminated on-campus recruiting efforts, losing a generation of potential talent that pursued other careers. But many senior-level executives now recognize that such shortsighted decisions contributed to the talent shortages in specialty areas that they're still grappling with today, said Angie Gildea, who leads the talent management group for energy at KPMG in Houston.

Houston-based Halliburton has cut nearly 14,000 jobs worldwide since last year, when oil prices began plummeting from more than $100 a barrel to around $40. Still, the oil services giant is taking a long-term view toward hiring, spokeswoman Susie McMichael said in a statement. In some cases, the company has unique positions to fill, but overall, it wants to sustain its talent pipeline and its brand reputation on campus.

Shell takes a similar long-term approach.

"Our graduate career opportunities remain healthy, and our current university recruitment targets have not been impacted by the current business environment," spokesman Ray Fisher said in a written statement.

"They're still coming," agreed Jamie Belinne, assistant dean for career services at the University of Houston's C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Belinne was worried about the upcoming attendance of a job fair next month. But just a week after one big Houston company announced layoffs, she got a request from the company for a recruiting booth.

So far, she has confirmed 130 employers - including Chevron, BP and ConocoPhillips - and has room for 15 more. Belinne is confident the career fair will be full by the time the booths are unpacked, the banners are hung and the brochures are displayed on the tables.

Part of her confidence stems from three pre-recruiting mixers the college already hosted that drew 30 to 45 employers at each.

Belinne acknowledged that energy companies are not taking on as many new workers as they did when oil prices were soaring. Employment in some specific areas, such as the construction of oil field platforms, has fallen dramatically, she said.

Nor have low oil prices deterred student attendance at job fairs.

Last fall, Kathleen Tillman went into her senior year at Texas A&M University feeling confident. She had just finished an internship with Tenaris, a Luxembourg-based pipe and tube maker, and had a job offer in hand upon her graduation with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering. After looking at other opportunities, she accepted a spot in technical sales that is part of a trainee program that provides extensive training, job rotations and international experience, including seven months in Argentina.

By the time spring rolled around and oil prices were plummeting, several of Tillman's fellow engineering students were panicking. Some couldn't find openings, and offers to others were being revoked.

"I feel pretty fortunate," Tillman said. "A lot of stars aligned."

Tenaris' global trainee program coordinator, Morgan Stelly, allowed that the company doesn't have as many openings for new graduates as it has had in previous years. But it has decided this is the right time to ramp up rather than pull back its presence on several key college campuses.

The company already has a strong toehold at Texas A&M and would like to increase its presence at such schools as UH and the University of Texas, Stelly said.

"We want to be a big name on campus," she said.