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Weir To Hire More Than 100 More New People In Midland Texas
September 18, 2017
Weir Oil and Gas committed last week to building a $30 million facility in Midland, but it was revealed Friday how many new jobs were expected to be created in the Tall City.
Weir struck a deal with the MDC recently that will see the oilfield services company build a 92,000 square-foot facility at the MDC’s currently undeveloped David Mims Business Park on Interstate 20 near Schlumberger’s Midland headquarters. In return, the MDC will offer Weir a $1.8 million forgivable loan to be paid in equal installments over five years so long as the company maintains a payroll of no less than $6 million and a property value of at least $20 million.
Weir will buy 20 acres of the 73.62-acres available at a cost of $20,000 per acre. The property will be on the tax rolls at $65,000 per acre.
Coppinger said the company is glad that its long hunt for a place to consolidate its Permian Basin facilities is over. “We’re excited to be going through our next phase of expansion in the Permian Basin.”
Weir currently operates three facilities in the Permian: two in Odessa and one in Midland County. Per the deal, Weir must close all three and cannot built within a 60-mile radius for the next five years.
“Over the past 18 months, we have been going through an exhaustive process to evaluate many different properties and many different combinations in jurisdictions,” Coppinger said. “Finally, we were able to reach an agreement where both parties thought it was in their best interest from a financial point of view and from an operational point of view and for our customers and our community.”
The MDC wasn’t first on Weir’s list. The company sought to strike a deal with the city of Odessa to build its facility; however, a trio of city council members scuttled any deal at its May 9 meeting and also fired Odessa Development Corp. President Jimmy Breaux, who was helping broker an agreement. Also of note at that meeting is that it was the impetus for the Odessa American to bring a lawsuit against the city. The newspaper alleges city council members violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Weir ultimately ended pursuit of building in Odessa in June. When asked whether Odessa City Council had made a mistake, Coppinger said he couldn’t answer for them.
“They have to make the best decision for their constituents,” he said. “I don’t have any hard feelings or what to judge their decision because they are elected to make decisions in the best interest of their community, and I’m sure they believe they did that. That may be the best decision for them, and it just didn’t turn out to line up with our goals and objectives, and this opportunity did.”
Moving to Midland might be more advantageous in the long run. The facility will be built on I-20, which is a main artery in the oil patch. Also, one of Weir’s largest customers is oilfield services giant Schlumberger. The two companies will soon be neighbors.
The MDC deal is with a pair of Weir subsidiaries: SPM, which specializes in pressure pumping and well control products, and Seaboard, which sells pressure control equipment and wellhead products. Weir Oil and Gas is a division of Weir Group, a company based in the United Kingdom.
Weir Group is a large multinational that earns billions of dollars annually. When asked why any incentive was necessary at all, Coppinger said it’s “a fairly common thing, regardless of size of your company, to work with local government officials who cooperate on incentives to bring more jobs to an area.”
“It wasn’t so much about whether we need to money or not; it’s a decision on the financial benefits of us making this investment and how can we benefit the community while getting some assistance to do so,” he said.
Weir hopes to open the new facility sometime between August and October next year.
Source: Midland Reporter Telegram
