Oil-Field Services Giants Build New Sites in Bexar County

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

The San Antonio area’s unemployment rate will drop considerably once Halliburton Co. establishes a site that is supposed to employ hundreds. The recently announced plans were followed a few days later by a disclosure from a Bexar county official that Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil-field services company, is proposing to establish a site in the southern part of the county.

Houston-based Halliburton purchased 150 acres in that area earlier this year, but officials will not yet confirm it is the future site of a major office building. According to the San Antonio Express-News, the oil-field giant is now searching for other sites.

If Halliburton does establish a major office in the area, it will become one of the biggest opportunities for San Antonio and the region, as it would employ a large number of people, who would buy property, shop and otherwise spend money in the area, thereby helping development of the region.

But Halliburton and Schlumberger are only two of the oil-field giants interested in the area. At the beginning of this year, two more announced plans to build offices in Bexar County: Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. plans to construct a $30 million operations center and headquarters on a 64-acre site, employing 400 people. And Weatherford International Inc. intends to build a facility and offices.

Of these four investments, the Halliburton project would be the largest. It already has 2,100 employees in South Texas and would possibly add 400 more jobs once the Bexar project is completed.