Oceaneering International Inc., a global oilfield provider of engineered services and products, will invest $5 million to expand its Morgan City, Louisiana facilities. Louisiana Economic Development (LED) estimates that the project will create 200 new positions averaging $60,000 per year, plus benefits, as well as 407 indirect jobs.
“The $5 million facility expansion illustrates the commitment Oceaneering has to its Morgan City, La.-based business,” said Pat Mannina, Oceaneering’s vice president and general manager for the Americas region. “It will also allow us to improve operational efficiencies between several service lines and further improve the quality of services we provide to our customers operating in the Gulf of Mexico as well as worldwide.”
Oceaneering said 120 of the new employees will be trained for production and performance of the company’s core product: remotely-operated vehicles that perform technical tasks and inspections at up to two miles below the surface of the sea. Another 80 new employees will provide broad support for the company in St. Mary Parish, where operations also include diving, rigging, inspection, inventory, administration and other units.
Hiring has already begun and will continue through 2012, LED said. The 30,000-square-foot manufacturing expansion, which joins an existing building of approximately 100,000 square feet, will be completed in November. Altogether, Oceaneering will operate more than 200,000 square feet of facilities in Morgan City.