Schlumberger in Bartlesville breaks ground on a new technology center

Their name may not be as familiar as Phillips 66, but Schlumberger has been around Bartlesville almost as long. And they are almost as important to the city's economy. <br><br>Friday, the company

Friday, July 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Their name may not be as familiar as Phillips 66, but Schlumberger has been around Bartlesville almost as long. And they are almost as important to the city's economy.

Friday, the company broke ground for a new 24-million-dollar technology campus. As News on Six business reporter Steve Berg tells us, it means many "more" years of business for Bartlesville. The blazing heat notwithstanding, the city of Bartlesville is much more comfortable today. Now that long-time, oil industry supplier Schlumberger is building a brand-new, state-of-the-art plant on the same spot as their old one. "They had a worldwide area to look at, and they chose Bartlesville."

Schlumberger is actually a multi-national corporation with 80-thousand employees in nearly 100 countries.
But Bartlesville has 70 years of experience with one of their biggest products, submersible pumps for the oil industry. "And so the workforce here is very experienced, there's a large pool of engineering experience for artificial lift technology in Oklahoma."

Right now, Schlumberger employs 450 people in Bartlesville, but the artificial lift technology, as they call it, is a growing market because oil wells are drying up, and they use these machines to get the last few drops from a well. "It's just a drawing on a piece of paper at this point, but for workers, this new plant is the best reassurance that workers will have a job in the future. "This industry is very cyclical, we know that, but the reality is when you invest capital to the extent that Schlumberger is investing in Bartlesville they're here to stay." The governor says the company was looking hard at other locations.

For a city that's already had one scare this year with the Phillips-Conoco merger, this is their second sigh of relief. "We could've lost it in one fell swoop, and you look at this from Schlumberger with their worldwide presence, just a dot on the map, but we're glad that dot is Bartlesville."