W&O Supply Inc., a supplier of pipes, valves and fittings, is expanding its facility in Texas, adding about 20 new jobs. The company’s facility in East Houston will house three company divisions under one roof, the first for the company. The company’s 100,000sq/ft facility is an expansion of the existing Houston facility, but two divisions, the SPACE and engineered products and automation (EP/A) divisions, will relocate to join the oil and gas division and a marine products sales division. The SPACE program, which manufactures maritime valves and actuators, is relocating all operations from Jacksonville. That includes the unit’s testing and distribution facilities and USD 7 million in inventory. The EP/A department in Houston, which is already that division’s home base, will house a complete automation shop that assembles, tests, and distributes inventory. The facility will be only the second of its kind for W&O, which has another one in San Diego. W&O says Houston’s E/PA division, which installed the RISE system that helped save the BP Thunder Horse drilling platform when it encountered problems in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico three years ago during Hurricane Dennis, will begin to boost the level of technology being manufactured at the facility.
