Texas  Business reports:  It’s a long way from Aberdeen, Scotland to Katy, but the two cities do have things in common.

Aberdeen is known as the “the Oil Capital of Europe,” while Katy is the headquarters of various petroleum industry-related businesses, and is about to become home to one more: Hampco, a company that builds drilling rig equipment and which is owned by Scotland native Andy Grieve, who entered the drilling business while living in Aberdeen.

Hampco, which also does consulting, upgrades, maintenance and other services, only recently began experiencing a rise in its custom-equipment designing and manufacturing services — which brought about the need to build a new facility.

“We’ve grown substantially over the last three years,” Grieve said.  “After doing a large amount of sub-contracting, the natural next step was to find a site and build a facility large enough to handle the process of designing and building our equipment in-house.”

Grieve said the facility may eventually expand in size based on the amount of business it handles.

Following a referral from the Greater Houston Partnership, the Katy Area Economic Development Council worked over the past year to help Hampco grow and find a suitable site. After a rigorous site search, the company selected 11 acres at 1625 West Grand Parkway North and for a Phase 1, 36,000 sq. ft., $6 million facility, ultimately creating 50 direct jobs over the next two years. Grieve established a new development company for the project, G-Tech, and the industrial park will be known as the G-Tech Technology Centre.

The Katy Area EDC plans to collaborate with Hampco and G-Tech to facilitate workforce training and recruitment incentives, technical assistance and potential energy incentives, said Lance LaCour, Katy Area EDC President and CEO.

“We are especially excited because G-Tech will fuel the location and incubation of future UK-based, technology-oriented energy companies, which is a target industry for Katy Area EDC,” LaCour said in  a statement. “It is also fitting that the building and site is named the G-Tech Centre, as it is in close proximity to the Katy Technology Center Campus (53 acres) which contains Pathfinder Technology Center and the new Dyna-Drill Campus that is under construction. Both companies are part of Schlumberger and when completed, the Katy Technology Center will employ over 700 people.”

About Hampco Hampco has been a multi-discipline provider of technical services and equipment to the international drilling industry since 1988. Grieve immigrated with his wife and children from Scotland to Katy in 2005. He stays in contact with a number of his fellow Scots in the petroleum industry who have immigrated to the U.S. like him, or plan to do so.