ZELIENOPLE — At a facility tucked away on the edge of the borough, five state senators toured Deep Well Services, a Zelienople-based oil field services company, to see how the business promotes “Pennsylvania's energy independence.”

“As part of the (Senate Environmental Resources and) Energy Committee, a lot of the members are invested in promoting energy independence and the industries around it,” state Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, said.

Hutchinson was joined by Sens. Joe Pittman, R-41st, vice chairman of that committee, and Elder Vogel Jr., R-47th, as representatives of Butler County at the event. Two other members of the committee — state Sens. Camera Bartolotta, R-46th, and Gene Yaw, R-23rd, the committee chairman — attended the tour.

The focus of the tour was a massive, $4 million machine that, Vogel said, had been recently built by the company. Right now, it's sitting — 40 feet tall — in the rear parking lot of the business' operation, serving to train employees and to potentially be used as a backup if any in-commission rigs break down.

Vogel said Deep Well is “a great business” for Butler County, providing a sizable number of jobs for Western Pennsylvanians.

“They support a lot of spending in the region,” said Vogel, a former member of the energy committee. “It's a great business to have here in the area.”

Deep Well Services was established in 2008, and provides services in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. In 2018, it was acquired by a Houston-based private-equity firm in an effort to expand to more markets.

Vogel said the company has more than 200 employees, 60 percent to 70 percent of whom are in Western Pennsylvania.