With a steep decline in oil prices over the past few months, Baker Hughes officials announced plans in late January to cut nearly 7,000 jobs worldwide. Melanie Kania, media relations specialist for Baker Hughes, said it is too early to determine the direct effect on potential employee layoffs and future operations at the Tomball campus and nearby 100-acre Western Hemisphere Education Center, located at the intersection of FM 2978 and FM 2920. "It's really too soon in the process," Kania said. "We don't have any location-specific information on how these layoffs will be distributed—they're a company-wide global number." Oil company Halliburton acquired Baker Hughes for an estimated $34.6 billion in November. The acquisition comes after an almost 60 percent decline in oil prices since June, reaching a five-year low, according to Baker Hughes. The job cuts are expected to reduce the company's global workforce of 62,000 total employees by about 11 percent. Lawrence Chapman, manager of the Western Hemisphere Education Center, said he does not foresee significant changes for the facility as a result of the companywide layoffs. Kania said as of mid-January, the company was still determining details of potential staffing or operations at the center. "With oil prices being depressed, we're expecting to see a decrease in our training, but the decrease will match our slowdown on the operation side," Chapman said. "With that being said, learning is one of the Baker Hughes core values, so this facility will continue to be utilized to train and develop our workforce." The center provides training for Baker Hughes employees from around the world in a classroom setting through hands-on mechanical and electrical labs as well as field operation methods with on-site rigs and wells. The facility features a 140,000-square-foot indoor training facility that spans across two buildings, along with a 162,000-square-foot training yard. The center is part of the Baker Hughes Tomball campus, which local officials estimate will pump $8 million in revenue into the local economy over the next decade. Since the $55.8 million education center's grand opening in May, Chapman said the facility has averaged about 399 trainees a day, many from outside of the Tomball area. Chapman said there are plans in place to expand the center in the future, but there is no timeline on the expansion. He said that the education center is a valuable resource for Baker Hughes. "The alignment of all product lines within the same training facility [helps Baker Hughes], and the engineers coming through [the center] have a much better foundation," Chapman said.