200-Plus New Clinton County Jobs This Year with BJ Services Start-Up
LAMAR TOWNSHIP – It is now official. BJ Services is in the process of reopening its dormant facility near Mackeyville and more than 200 jobs will result.
Therecord-online earlier this week reported word of the start-up at the former Baker-Hughes site in the Clinton County Economic Partnership Lamar Township Business Park. Friday brought a formal confirmation from BJ Services in Tomball, Texas:
“BJ Services will be relocating operations from Clarksburg, W.Va. to Mill Hall, Pa. to better support our growing business in the Marcellus and Utica basins. Clarksburg is a wonderful city, and we are grateful to have been a part of the community. Our team in Clarksburg has been foundational to the success of BJ Services. We have offered each of our Clarksburg employees an opportunity to remain with the company, with the transition expected to take approximately three months. We look forward to continuing to serve customers throughout the northeast U.S. and expand our operations through the opening of our state-of-the-art Mill Hall service center.”
A company spokesperson at BJ Services’ suburban Dallas headquarters provided these answers to a series of questions from the record-online:
1. The timeline for the re-start:
On July 17, 2018, BJ Services announced that it will be relocating its Clarksburg operations to Mill Hall, Pa. and the transition is expected to take approximately three months.
2. Number of employees:
We will have more than 200 members in Mill Hall. Mill Hall will serve as the district office for our fracturing operations and operations support functions in the Marcellus and Utica basins.
3. Will there be local hires? transfers from West Virginia:
We expect to have local hires, in addition to our internal transfers.
4. Will the start-up be incremental?
Once the facility is opened, we anticipate operating all assets out of the Mill Hall facility.
5. Is the entire Clarksburg operation being relocated to Clinton County? Or just one unit thereof?
All of BJ’s Clarksburg fracturing operations will be relocated to Mill Hall.
Local officials learned of the pending transfer to Lamar Township earlier this summer. Earlier this week, Economic Partnership chief executive officer Mike 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.” Then came Friday’s message from Texas that more than 200 jobs will work out of the site.
Preliminary activity has already begun at the location near the Clinton County Fairgrounds. The site had been opened and operated by Baker Hughes; that company 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 had 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 downturn 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.
