BJ Services Adding Jobs

LAMAR TOWNSHIP – The once dormant former Baker Hughes facility near Mackeyville is now far from dormant.
New owner BJ Services out of Tomball, Texas announced in August it was reopening the facility and said more than 200 jobs would ultimately result. As 2018 turns to 2019, the company continues to add new hires towards that goal.

According to Mike Flanagan, chief executive officer of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, as of this week the company has some 60 employees with plans to hire another 60 or so over the next month. He said BJ Services most recently held a job fair event on Dec. 20.

The company has relocated operations from its Clarksburg, WV facility to the 38 acre site. It had announced in August the transition to Clinton County would take approximately three months. It said at the time that the move to its “state-of-the-art” service center would allow BJ to better support its growing business in the Marcellus and Utica basins.

The site near the Clinton County Fairgrounds 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 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 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 came a year later.