A manufacturer of oil- and gas-drilling equipment that opened last summer in Central PA is hiring new workers at a steady clip and plans to keep up that pattern through the end of the year.
Forum Energy Technologies, which is based in Houston, decided to open a new plant in Clearfield because of the town's location in the Marcellus Shale natural-gas formation and proximity to Interstate 80. Its facility there is located in a 95,000-square foot former factory that closed in 2009.
Forum's 56 employees in Clearfield make equipment that is used on drilling sites, such as machines that separate sand out of the wastewater that results from the process of hydraulic fracturing, which coaxes natural gas from underground rock formations. Plant manager David Schultz says the plant is running at full capacity, making machinery destined for drilling sites in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Dakota and other states. Workers also repair equipment made in far-flung locations so drilling companies don't have to spend up to $10,000 to send one machine to the factory where it was originally made.
Schultz says Forum is picky about who it hires because of the intricacy of the equipment it makes. The company hopes to hire about 30 more people by June and have about 120 full-time workers in Clearfield by the end of the year. As it hires more employees, he says, Forum can take on more work.
Source: David Schultz, Forum Energy Technologies
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen