HispanicBusiness

Turkish pipe maker will build a $150 million factory in Oklahoma or Texas, officials of the company, Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi & Ticaret AS, said Monday.

The location of the plant depends on talks with officials of the two states, but the facility is expected to take advantage of growing U.S. oil and natural gas drilling activities, CEO Agah Ugur said at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

The factory is expected to open in 2014 and create about 350 jobs, Bloomberg News quoted Ugur as saying.

"We decided to make this investment to benefit from the expected growth in the U.S. upstream market," Ugur said. "The energy pipe market in the U.S. will grow to 8.3 million tons in 2015 from 6 million tons last year."

Borusan expects to produce steel tubular goods, or pipes used in drilling for oil and natural gas, including hydraulic fracturing drilling techniques.

Staff and Wire Reports