A new source of energy jobs is about to come to the Casper, Wyoming area.

Mesa Solutions is expanding its manufacturing base in Evansville and plans to consolidate its two existing buildings into one new, significantly larger facility.

The company manufactures commercial and industrial power generators, including an oil and gas generation series that can convert flared gas into reliable power while meeting EPA standards.

Until now, the company has had two lots in Evansville, one along Baker Drive and the other in the Cole Creek Industrial Park. One facility built its engines, while the other made generators to house those engines.

The new Mesa factory will be 220,000 square feet, according to Evansville city planning department records.

The new plant will not only have ample space for the company’s two existing buildings, but will also include significant growth space. The company has told the Wyoming Business Council, which awarded a nearly $9 million infrastructure grant to support the project, that once it has its new plant, the company will expand the workforce there by about 260 jobs.

The construction schedule calls for work to begin in January 2025 and finish sometime in summer 2026.

It is not known when the company would begin the hiring process for the new positions, nor exactly how many new positions will be available. Mesa Solutions did not respond to questions from Cowboy State Daily about the expansion.

“Right now, Mesa is not offering any information until after the first of the year,” Mesa marketing team leader Amber Poth told Cowboy State Daily. “Thank you for your patience as we work through the remainder of 2024.”

A triple victory for oil and gas

The idea of ​​putting gas burned in wells to work has been gaining traction in the oil and gas sector.

Flaring has been a lightning rod for criticism from people on both sides of the political aisle. On the one hand, it is an irreversible loss of a valuable resource that would otherwise be subject to royalties. On the other hand, it is considered to contribute to things like air pollution and climate change.

Putting flares to work as a power source not only satisfies some critics, it also generates low-cost energy that can be put to work in a well or sold back to the power grid for a revenue stream. It can also be used to power scalable and energy-intensive computing infrastructure, also known as artificial intelligence, which is a rapidly growing sector.

Mesa’s website says its gas generators have already mitigated 1.2 million tons of flared gas, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by a corresponding 30%.

Mesa Solutions has grown rapidly since its inception in 2019, expanding to 27 locations across the state and establishing field offices in a variety of oil and gas areas, including the Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford and Permian basins in Texas.

They employ 700 people company-wide and have a Glassdoor rating of close to 70%. Reviewers highlighted the work-life balance and its compensation and benefits as positive aspects, but many also said it can be a fast-paced environment that requires a lot of outside work.

Doubleheader for Wyoming

The Wyoming Business Council decided to invest in the project because it’s a bit of a bang for your buck.

“All of our money is going to go into the community, to help them build the infrastructure that they have,” Wyoming Business Council Executive Director Josh Dorrell told Cowboy State Daily. “The money we’re putting in helps Mesa Solutions expand their business and build a great facility, and I think they’re investing about $80 million in that building.

“Our $9 million unlocks their ability to do that, but it also unlocks a 200-acre parcel in Evansville that they will now be able to develop around Mesa.”

Dorrell estimates the $9 million grant will unlock an economic impact of $20 million annually for Natrona County.

“The rest of that park can be used for further development,” Dorrell said. “So other Mesa vendors, or other businesses that need space, now have a place to go. And that’s what we like to do: unleash the potential of a community and create more jobs. In this case, we were able to do both, so it was kind of a two-for-one deal, if not more than two-for-one.”

Dorrell said the company told him it wanted to expand the Casper office because it sees Wyoming as a very good place to grow.

“Without this investment, Mesa might have considered moving somewhere else and not being there in Evanston,” Dorrell said.

The overall development will also help unlock a future revenue stream that Evansville can use for economic development, making it more self-sufficient in the future when it comes to diversifying its own economy.

Those are the types of economic investments, where multiple goals are achieved and greater self-sufficiency is achieved, that Dorrell said the Wyoming Business Council wants to prioritize going forward.

“We want to make sure we’re not just spreading (state funds) around and everyone gets a little bit,” he said. “We’re trying to really focus on unlocking large tracts of land or unlocking capabilities in communities that they don’t have today.”

Renee Jean can be reached [email protected].