Former Baker Hughes Facility Reopening
LAMAR TOWNSHIP – BJ Services will be reopening the former Baker Hughes facility at the Lamar Township Business Park. The mammoth facility has been the site of recent preliminary activity and Mike Flanagan, chief executive officer for the Clinton County Economic Partnership, confirmed on Tuesday word of the reopening.
BJ Services several years ago had purchased part of Baker Hughes. Preliminary word is BJ Services will be transferring its Clarksburg WV. site to the local complex. It is unknown as of this time how many of the employees will accept the transfer. BJ will operate its pressure pumping for the region based out of the business park and plans to restart on or around Oct. 1.
Flanagan told therecord-online, “The Partnership is pleased and excited that BJ is reopening. As we all know, that’s a nice modern facility and it will be put back into use after Baker left a few years ago. And there will be local hires, we just don’t know how many at this time. We knew there would be more innings to play with the gas industry, and we are glad it’s coming back.”
BJ Services is based out of Tomball, Texas. Baker Hughes had announced in late 2016 the formation of a newly independent BJ Services Company, providing pressure pumping service to the oil and natural gas industries.
The 38 acre site has been idle since Baker Hughes departed in March of 2016. The closure was blamed on market conditions in the natural gas industry.
Baker Hughes had paid the Clinton County Economic Partnership $2.25 million for the site in 2012. The facility later employed over 200 people but in 2015 was affected by the downtown in the price of natural gas and curtailed natural gas exploration/development. In March of 2015 35 local employees were let go and another 90 transferred to Clarksburg, WV; word of the local facility closing followed in March of 2016.
