Exterran breaks ground

February 29, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Chelsea Miller

Youngstown

Tuesday marked the groundbreaking for a new Youngstown fabrication plant expected to provide more than 100 jobs to Mahoning Valley skilled workers.

The fabrication plant, Exterran Energy Solutions, specializes in natural- gas compression production equipment and processing facilities. The 65,000-square-foot facility will service oil and gas producers in the Marcellus and Utica shale exploration.

Daniel Schlanger, the plant’s senior vice president of operation services, compared the Youngstown Utica and Marcellus shale to the Eagle Ford shale region of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.

“Three years ago, we didn’t have a lot of business there. We had 75 people working, and now, we’re at capacity and trying to figure out ways to expand,” he said, adding that there may be significant growth opportunities in Youngstown.

Workers at the new plant are expected to earn an average hourly wage of $23. Schlanger said the company wants to provide high-paying jobs to the region.

“Our goal is to make it an employee-friendly place to work,” Schlanger said. “We like trying to work in the best interests of our employees, too, and we are very much expecting high-quality employees to come in and produce high-quality goods for our customers.”

The Youngstown area’s unemployment rate is 8.2 percent. Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said Exterran’s location in Youngstown is the start of business development in the region.

“This is another sign that eastern Ohio is making a comeback,” Taylor told attendees at the ceremony. “One hundred more families in the region will have a brighter future because of Exterran’s decision to locate here.”

Mark Kvamme, president and interim chief investment officer of Jobs- Ohio, predicts other regional operations will locate to Ohio looking to benefit from shale exploration.

“We will really not know until probably 2013 or 2014 the size of this opportunity,” he said. “But investments from companies like V&M Star and companies like Exterran are just good examples that there’s definitely something going on.”

Exterran is expected to begin hiring workers by the end of the year.