Weatherford, an oil and gas services company, is now operating from its newest manufacturing and office facility in the Katy area. The 354,000-square-foot facility is located on 174 acres in Waller County, off Hwy. 90. So far, Weatherford has brought on 135 employees to staff its Katy location. The company expects to hire 335 more by the end of 2015.
The company provides artificial lift technology and services, which help oil and gas companies maximize the profit and productivity of their extraction operations.
The availability of land in the Katy area, its general location and the available workforce were all major factors in the company's decision to build a facility in the area, company leaders said.
Weatherford Senior Marketing Manager, Karl Sakocius, said there aren't any sites in Houston that would provide the company with as much land as it was able to get in Katy. The site is large enough not only to meet all of its current needs, but allows room to expand, he said.
The Katy location, in addition to manufacturing products and technology, will also be an education center. The facility is equipped to provide large group training for Weatherford employees from across the world, as well as energy industry employees from other companies.
In addition, Katy's location west of Houston allows Weatherford easy access to the Energy Corridor, while also providing easy access to other parts of the state via I-10, Sakocius said.
The strong workforce living in the Katy area will allow the facility to increase its output from 120 rod pumping units per month to 600 units, Ernest Dunn, vice president of production systems said.
"You can put up walls, you can build things, but you can't do it without people," he said.
Weatherford surveyed the area, looking for a location that would give it access not just to a volume of workers, but a particular type of worker.
"We were looking for a group of people that are good, hard-working and trustworthy. This seemed to be the spot that had the greatest potential," Dunn said.
