17 temporarily laid off at Elliott Group's Rostraver location

Seventeen workers at Elliott Group’s Rostraver center were temporarily laid off in light of the coronavirus pandemic’s impacts on the oil and gas industry, according to a company spokeswoman.

The employees work at a center that does unit packaging and manufacturing of auxiliary systems for oil and gas industry clients, said Christiann Bash. That industry has seen falling oil and gas prices and jobs slashed around the world as a result of the pandemic.

As a result, clients are postponing scheduled equipment orders and maintenance outages, which means a reduced workload for the Elliott employees, Bash said.

The U.S. contract for crude oil started 2020 at over $60 a barrel before collapsing to below -$37 in April, according to the Associated Press. It recovered to about $39 a barrel as of Monday as OPEC countries agreed to limit production, the AP reported.

Elliott Group’s U.S. headquarters is in Jeannette. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Ebara Corp. It manufactures compressors and turbines for oil and gas, refining, petrochecmical and industrial uses and cryogenic pumps and expanders for liquefied gas plants. Elliott Group is building a cryogenic pump test stand at the former Jeannette Glass site that is expected to add about 130 jobs to the company’s workforce in the city.