By Marty Baker

J.W. Williams, Inc. in Casper, Wyoming, provides complete engineering and fabrication services for the petroleum and gas processing industries.  At their Casper facility, they primarily manufacture processing equipment for separation of natural gas and crude oil.  They hold contracts with major oil companies and are already working on contracts into 2006.  Business is booming and is expected to continue growing into future years as the demand for natural gas increases.  With growth comes challenges and one of the biggest ones facing the company is a shortage of welders.  It is that scenario that brings Human Resources Manager Hal Connor, and Shop Foreman Jim Sonesen to the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology to present opportunities for employment to students.

“We hired a couple graduates of the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology and were very impressed with their level of expertise,” says Jim Sonesen.  “It was obvious that they had received high quality training.  We had to spend very little time training them for our application-specific projects.”

“My Hobart training has many benefits, including the technical knowledge I needed to allow me to enter the work force with a sense of confidence,” says Kyle Ray, one of the Hobart graduates hired by the company.  “When I came to J.W. Williams, I was able to perform the welding tests needed with a sense of comfort and ease.  Thanks to Hobart, I have found a successful and profitable vocation that I enjoy.”

Quality is also very important to J.W. Williams, Inc.  They manufacture pressure vessels to stringent codes.   To achieve that quality, the company is looking for high quality trained employees. 

“We are looking for employees who are seeking a career that offers future stability and room for advancement,” explains Hal Connor.  “These are not temporary positions.  We currently employ 55 welders and are seeking to increase that number to 80 by the end of the year.  Four of those are Hobart Institute graduates and four are female welders.”

The day-shift welders work five, 10-hour days, securing ten hours of overtime each week.  The night-shift welders work four, 12-hour days with a three-day weekend and are paid two dollars per hour more than the day shift.  The base salary is very competitive at $40,000 per year and the wage package includes benefits and 401K after 90 days of employment. 

Attendance is so important to this company that they are willing to pay an additional one-dollar-per-hour for perfect attendance during each pay period.  They also pay quarterly bonus for time saving job performance.  If this sounds like your dream job, be ready to discuss financial assistance for relocation in addition to the other employee perks. 

Each welder has his own work area and work pieces are prepared for them as they perform both automatic and manual welding on stainless and carbon steel in the manufacturing of giant tubes and pipes for natural gas production equipment in the clean and safe manufacturing facility.

In addition to a great job, there is much to enjoy during leisure hours in Wyoming.  Casper is a city of 50,000 spread over 24 square miles in Natrona County.  There are many different landscapes to see throughout the state.   Grasslands, mountains, forests, deserts, rivers, and lakes make for some of the most breath-taking scenery in the country.  Wyoming is known for its abundance of fish, as well as large and small game animals.

Wyoming, known as the Cowboy State, claims two national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.  In addition to the parks, destination points such as Jackson Hole, Big Horn Mountain, White Pine and Grand Targhee regularly attract skiers to the region.  Adventure can lead you into the backcountry where you can forget civilization for days or weeks. Or it may return you each evening to a comfortable home setting.  Wyoming lets you experience the western way of life that's away from admission tickets, waiting lines or merely observing - it’s participation. It's wild, woolly, exciting and the chance to do the real thing.

You might try your hand at running the Snake River on a commercial float trip, herding cattle in the Big Horn Mountains, biking in the Snowy Range, climbing the Tetons or stargazing in the Red Desert.  Wyoming shows you many ways to grow, learn and participate with an a la carte menu of adventure options.

Located in the heart of all of this wonderment is J.W. Williams, Inc., one of the "Flint" companies. Flint Energy Services Ltd., located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada is an integrated midstream production services provider employing 6,000 dedicated people operating in 42 strategic locations across Canada and the United States. Within the U.S.A., J. W. Williams, Inc. is closely aligned with Flint Energy Services, Inc., headquartered in Tulsa, OK.  Its primary market area includes the oil and natural gas producing regions within the U.S.A. and Canada. It also has sales representation in Singapore and the United Kingdom.

The Company's roots can be traced back to the mid-1940's. It was then that the founder, John W. Williams, began his career as a petroleum engineer after earning his degree from the University of Kansas. Initially, he worked in refineries along the gulf coast of Texas, followed by several years with Black, Sivalls, and Bryson (B.S. & B.). Finally, "J. W." was eager to apply his knowledge and ideas to forming a new company. With the support of others experienced at B. S. & B., the company grew into a well-known supplier of quality products for the gas processing industry.

In 1979, J. Max Williams joined the company as head of the engineering department, later becoming President in 1983. Under his leadership, the company has expanded its scope of operation to include engineering design, modular plant assembly, shell & tube exchangers, environmental controls, and related systems for the gas processing industry.

Today, J. W. Williams, Inc. provides complete engineering and fabrication services for many facets of the petroleum and gas processing. Much of the equipment has been skid-mounted for transportation from site to site. Prior to the startup of the Southern Region in Waller, Texas, fabrication work had been performed in the company's shops located in Casper, Wyoming. These shops are the oldest and most experienced American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code shops in the state of Wyoming. This experience is being utilized as new fabrication facilities are added in Texas and elsewhere. 

J.W. Williams, Inc. is dedicated to contributing its share to the quality of services and products produced within the oil & gas services sector. We will achieve this goal by living our core values of integrity, success, excellence, and dynamics. 

For more information, visit the web site at http://www.jwwjobs.com or call (307) 237-8345.  Contact Hal Connor by e-mail at Hconnor@jwwilliams-flint.com