KEDC helps existing Kilgore business expand

Bill Adamson, right, KEDC president, presents STS district manager Steven Warbrough with a copy of the performance agreement that will reward the company with $78,000 if it invests in equipment and additional employees at its new Kilgore headquarters during the coming three years. Looking on are Stephen Saha, STS regional manager, and Amanda Nobles, KEDC manager. Kilgore Economic Development Corporation has inked a deal to keep an existing business here that promises to add new jobs and millions worth of equipment to its inventory during the next three years.

Specialty Rental Tools & Supply, LCC, known as "STS," will receive $78,000 if it meets the terms of its "performance agreement," said Bill Adamson, KEDC board president.

STS proposes to install equipment worth $2.7 million in its new facility at 100 Hwy. 31 East in Kilgore, located at its intersection with Fritz Swanson Road. The company, formerly located on Maverick Drive in the North Kilgore Industrial Park, moved June 1 to its brand new headquarters, which includes a 19,000-plus-square-foot shop and 3,000- square-foot office.

Once STS presents a Certificate of Occupancy from city hall, KEDC will write the company a check for $55,000, Adamson said.

For the other $23,000 in incentives, STS must maintain its existing 13 jobs and add 10 more over the next three years.

"KEDC's goal is to facilitate the creation of primary jobs and investment in Kilgore," said Amanda Nobles, KEDC economic development director. "Our support of this project is one way we can do that."

Stephen Saha, STS regional manager, said his company provides oilfield services and equipment including downhole tools, flow back equipment, frac stacks, hydraulic choke manifolds, drilling motors, fishing tools and more.

District manager Steven Warbrough said STS purchased Smith Production Equipment in Kilgore in 2004 and moved its operations from Hwy. 135 to the industrial park at that time.

Based in Alvin, the company has 13 offices in Texas, seven in Louisiana, and one each in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

STS is a subsidiary of Oilstates International, Inc., which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OIS. Its other well site service companies include CapStar Drilling, Elenburg Exploration, General Marine Leasing, PTI Group, Stinger Wellhead Protection and Well Testing, Inc.