Demonstrating its commitment to expanding its state of the art U.K. manufacturing presence, GE’s Oil & Gas business has officially opened a new wireline manufacturing and headquarters facility in Farnborough, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

The facility brings the GE Oil & Gas—Downhole Technology platforms’ design engineering, manufacturing, testing and headquarters operations under a single, 56,000 sq ft facility. More than 180 highly skilled operations, engineering, sales and office support personnel are employed at the site, which is located within QinetiQ’s Cody Technology Park.

GE Oil & Gas—Downhole Technology provides oilfield services companies with advanced technology solutions designed to measure and understand the condition of the asset (formation or completion) and the flow of hydrocarbons from a well, and therefore help optimize oil and gas production in the $320 billion global oilfield services segment.

Performing the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, Gerald Howarth MP, member of Parliament for Aldershot and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defense as Minister for International Security Strategy, said: “I am delighted officially to open this impressive new GE Oil & Gas facility which supports oil and gas production around the world with high-tech equipment and services, generating high-skilled jobs in the U.K. I also am pleased that GE has decided to locate this operation in Hampshire, within the world-class Cody Technology Park. This is good news for Farnborough and for U.K. manufacturing.”

Mark Elborne, GE’s U.K. national executive said: “With 19,000 employees and 60 major locations in the U.K., GE is a major contributor to the U.K.’s manufacturing base, to U.K. jobs and to the local communities where we operate. We have invested $13 billion in British businesses since 2002, and we continue to expand our presence, drawing on the wealth of engineering expertise the U.K. must continue to nurture. This new GE Oil & Gas facility will enable us to improve our wireline supply-chain capabilities to benefit the oil and gas customers we supply around the world.”

The new facility adds to GE Oil & Gas’ considerable presence in the United Kingdom, which includes more than 2,400 employees based at manufacturing, service and test facilities in Aberdeen and Montrose in Scotland and Cramlington, Newcastle, Nailsea and Farnborough in England.