MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - Weir is finally calling Midland their home. The global oil and gas company is consolidating 3 of their service centers in both Odessa and Midland County into a $30 million facility.
"We bought enough land that we can expand in the future," said Weir Oil and Gas President, Paul Coppinger. "We've got the capability if we had on product lines, or we can continue to expand our business. We can do that on this site."
On Thursday, the company broke ground on a 20-acre lot at the David Mims Business Park, after making a deal with the Midland Development Corporation a few months ago.
"Our goals and objectives for the city, the Midland Development Corporation and Weir, they lined up so well together," said Coppinger. "It was a fairly smooth process to get it done. We're just so happy of what we ended up."
On top of being a large service center, it'll also be an engineering facility, meaning more money will be rolling in.
"Any time we can export something out of the Permian Basin into another place, that means that we're using other folks' dollars to buy something that was made locally by our people. That's dollars coming out elsewhere that wasn't made here previously," said Midland Development Corporation Chairman, Brent Hilliard.
Once finished, it'll include office space, a shop area and pressure pumping and pressure control testing facilities.
Construction has already started to make way for the 92,000 square foot facility. It's located off I-20 and within city limits, making it a blessing for both the city and the county.
"Those business units will end up creating a speed to market for our economy," said Hilliard. "They're going to eventually diversify our economy. The basic principal of what the deal is going to look like, this is the reality."
Prior to locating in Midland, the company tried making a deal in Odessa. An Odessa City Council member told us part of the reason they turned down the deal was because it wouldn't make good use of taxpayer dollars since the facility location would have been within Odessa city limits, but in Midland County.
