Revisions to the master blueprint address an array of issues at the transportation and manufacturing complex in Catoosa.

BARTLESVILLE -- Rapid growth in employee numbers is prompting FTS Inspection and Engineering Services to move to a new site in Bartlesville, officials announced this week.

FTS, which inspects and assesses petrochemical assets, built a facility in Bartlesville Industrial Park in 2005 but already has outgrown the space. The company's 150 Bartlesville employees now will move to a three-story office building owned by Siemens USA, where FTS will occupy 16,000 square feet with the option of leasing the entire 39,000-square-foot building.

"We are very pleased at the sustained growth of our business and the opportunity that we have had to create quality jobs in Bartlesville," said FTS President John Fiore. "With this new facili ty we can continue to provide the excellent professional environment that has allowed us to attract the quality of employees and clients that has formed the basis of our growth."

With a team of certified inspectors and engineers, FTS conducts inspections of refineries, chemical plants, natural gas facilities and well sites to evaluate safety and maintenance needs.

Founded in 1992 in Bartlesville, FTS had seven employees in 2002. Thanks to a 25 percent to 30 percent growth in business annually since 1999, FTS is now up to 150 workers.

The company has qualified for the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program, which allows for quarterly cash payments of up to 5 percent of a company's payroll for 10 years.

FTS, which says it will be hiring another 55 people during the next five years in Bartlesville, also has offices in Ponca City and Houston.

The city of Bartlesville provided free land to FTS for the building it constructed in the municipal industrial park. Bartlesville Development Corp. officials say the firm now will lease or sell the building.

The development corporation, which plans to ask the city for some incentive funds to assist the FTS move, helped the company secure the lease on the Siemens property.

"FTS is one of the premier employers in Bartlesville, drawing on Bartlesville's rich heritage in the oil and gas industry and moving it into the future," said Jim Fram, CEO of the development corporation. "We are glad to have been able to assist FTS in securing facilities that can serve as a platform for continued expansion."