ODESSA, Texas — Liberty Energy and the Odessa Development Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for Liberty Energy's brand new regional headquarters located in Odessa.
While the headquarters will primarily serve as a base of operations for Liberty Energy for the Odessa region, it will also include a two-story building that will include a training center for employees.
“It’s a large building. It's a vehicle maintenance facility for its primary use," Constructable CEO Jared Hellums said. "It'll be Liberty's local regional office for safety meetings, conferences and their corporate office to to showcase their brand throughout the Permian Basin.”
Along with the corporate offices, construction will also include a 42-bay maintenance workshop, a six-bay truck wash facility and a 50,000 square foot warehouse.
A vast majority of the project will be funded by Liberty Energy, who are investing $50 million into construction. The ODC also awarded the company with a five-year agreement that includes a $2.5 million grant.
The new headquarters is going to be quite big as well, so it’s going to take a while for the project to reach completion.
To speed up the process, construction workers were getting to work on the land as soon as ODC and Liberty Energy officials dug their shovels into the dirt.
“The building is 1200 feet long and 220 feet wide, so our big challenge right now is just to make a flat platform," Liberty Energy Founder/CEO/Chairman Chris Wright Said. "We expect the building to be done in about 18 months, I think late summer or early fall of next year.”
However, the biggest benefit for the city of Odessa will be the new jobs flooding into the market.
"We'll have about 1000 people based here and within a year or two after that closer to 1500," Wright said. "So 1500 jobs will be working at the location where we're breaking ground today.”
With the new headquarters, new facilities and new jobs, the hope is to keep the Permian Basin the key market for oil and gas production.
“I think it's a lot of jobs in Odessa, its quite a large construction facility and more importantly, a bunch of passionate people that engage in our communities," Wright said. "There are all sorts of non-profit efforts, most of all I'd say in our efforts to grow the oil and gas production in the Permian Basin.”