Claremore Daily Progress

Top Stories

March 5, 2009

Heath Tech could bring 175 new jobs to Claremore

Tom Fink

Claremore — A New Mexico-based company hopes its environmentally beneficial breakthrough technologies will spur dynamic growth and bring up to 175 new jobs to its south Claremore manufacturing plant over the next five years.

Engineered Concepts selected Claremore as a manufacturing base in late 2007, after it picked up a 15,000-square-foot facility, formerly the site of Process Pipe Fabricators.

Renaming the operation “Heath Technology LLC,” co-founder Gary Heath said Engineered Concepts plans to invest up to $3 million in new equipment and infrastructure for producing its VRSA products in Claremore.

The firm is expecting to grow from 13 to 175 employees over the next five years, Heath estimated.

Heath Technologies is currently working with the Claremore Industrial and Economic Development Authority to pursue additional resources for company growth.

“I’ve been very pleased to be involved with this project,” said CIEDA Executive Director Tim Hight. “CIEDA looking forward to the development of the Heath facility and the creation of future jobs in green manufacturing and technologies that will be new to Claremore.”

Gary Heath’s brother and Heath Technology co-founder Rodney Heath said he was “very impressed” with the attitude and willingness to help of the Claremore Economic Development Authority, as well as other state and private organizations, all of whom have made Engineered Concepts’ move to Claremore a comfortable one.

Engineered Concepts, LLC of Farmington, N.M., has developed an alternative vapor recovery system to recover vapors that flash from natural gas liquids and end the need for oil and gas flare systems that burn valuable energy and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Designed for the colder Rocky Mountain regions, which have seen drilling increases over the past decade from Tulsa-based Williams, Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy and other companies, Engineered Concepts principals Gary and Rodney Heath said their systems have charted several successes in tests with the Canadian firm EnCana.

With energy companies seeking environmentally friendly alternatives to releasing or burning off liquid hydrocarbon vapors, the Heaths expect their new vapor recovery products, dehydrators and other lines to find opportunities not just with firms working those high-altitude regions, but across the entire energy sector.

With an existing concrete foundation and structural frame ready for build-out and completion, Heath said the Claremore site will provide for up to 6,000 square feet of additional space.

With this year’s dramatic commodities price swings and election debates focusing the national attention on U.S. energy security and drilling efforts, Gary Heath expects energy companies may be primed to experiment more in new energy saving, environmental technologies.

“It’s moving better than I thought it would,” he said of the VRSA system, which can cost $100,000 or more. “We’re hoping that the VRSA really catches fire next year. It’s a win-win for everybody.”







Text Only
Top Stories
  • NTC-Roy-Clark-Cweb.jpg NTC’s opens Roy Clark Music School

    Claremore is no stranger to country music talent.

    February 3, 2012 1 Photo

  • RCCJA to hire attorney

    Members of the Rogers County Criminal Justice Authority Thursday approved the hiring of a Tulsa attorney to serve as legal council for the trust, charged with supervising sales tax dollars set aside for the jail.

    February 3, 2012

  • bluestarr-wreck2-3-12web.jpg Blue Starr crash sends one to hospital

    The morning commute proved dangerous for a driver in Claremore this morning, as her Dodge Neon was struck by a semi truck at the intersection of Blue Starr Drive and SH66 just after 7 a.m.

    February 3, 2012 1 Photo

  • Flood3web.jpg City proposes storm water fee

    City officials presented the city council with a proposed storm water fee this week to fund future projects to deal with flooding issues.

    February 3, 2012 1 Photo

  • ShakeOut_CUS_DontFreakweb.jpg Are You Ready to ShakeOut?

    With more the 40 million people living and working in the central U.S., a major earthquake could cause unprecedented devastation. What we do now, before a big earthquake, will determine what our lives will be like afterwards. With earthquakes an inevitable part of this region's future, we must act quickly to ensure that disasters do not become catastrophes.

    February 2, 2012 1 Photo

  • Punxsyphil.jpg VIDEO: Punxsutawney Phil makes his prediction

    More than 18,000 people descended on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney for the annual Groundhog Day celebration.

    February 2, 2012 1 Photo

  • Fallin: Okla. income tax plan to reduce brackets

     Gov. Mary Fallin says her plan to reduce Oklahoma's income tax will reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to three and will include revenue growth criteria that will trigger future tax cuts.

    February 2, 2012

  • Speaker Steele supports Open Records for legislature

    Oklahoma House Speaker Kris Steele says he supports an initiative to require the Oklahoma Legislature to be subject to the requirements of the state's Open Records and Open Meetings Act.

    February 2, 2012

  • Groundhog sees shadow, predicts 6 more weeks of winter

    Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair to “see” his shadow on Thursday, in the process predicting six more weeks of winter.

    February 2, 2012

  • American_Airlines.jpg American Airlines: Tulsa jobs to be slashed by 2,100

    American Airlines is expected to slash about 2,100 jobs at its maintenance facility in Tulsa under a bankruptcy reorganization plan released by its parent company, a spokesman for the airline said Wednesday.

    February 1, 2012 1 Photo