Up to $41 million in new equipment and buildings planned at the former LeTourneau Technologies needs a tax exemption to be fully realized, company representatives told the Warren County Board of Supervisors Monday.

A representative for Cameron International Corp., the Houston-based oil services firm that bought the LeTourneau fabrication yard in 2011, said the company plans to create about 167 new jobs in the next decade.

Wes Bowen of Harvest Group LLC, a Germantown, Tenn.,-based tax incentive negotiation firm hired by Cameron, told supervisors the multibillion-dollar company needs new flattening presses, paint booths, cranes and an improved sprinkler system as part of an expansion to start next year.

“We want this facility to be very successful,” Bowen said. “We want this facility to have good jobs that last for a long time. What you’ll see in the next few years is a conversion from temp and contract labor to full-time employment, which is what everybody wants — with benefits and all those types of things.”

Cameron has refocused the facility’s business plan on component kits for offshore oil drilling rigs instead of full-size jackup rigs made locally for years under previous owners.

Training for “skilled positions” such as welders, fabricators and other technical work would result from a mix of its own qualified workers and help from the Vicksburg WIN Job Center, Bowen said. The bulk of new hires would be construction jobs, though annual salary of new hires would average $40,000, according to an overview of the expansion given to the county board.

Cameron sought an assurance from the Warren County Board of Supervisors that an improvement-related property tax exemption would pass.

The firm’s pitch was met favorably by the board, which was meeting informally Monday, and could, therefore, take no action. A formal request for the tax break will be filed in June 2013, Bowen said.

“We embrace this growth and we want to help any way we can,” Board President Bill Lauderdale said, adding it would benefit the company to involve officials such as the tax assessor to ensure the improvements would meet all criteria for an exemption.

Typically, exemptions based on physical plant upgrades involve reduced city or county taxes while school and state taxes are left intact.

In recent years, Warren County has voted on such applications in June, during its budget process for the next fiscal year.

Cameron employs more than 19,000 at 300 facilities worldwide, including 251 full-time positions at the Warren County facility, and had $6.9 billion in revenues for fiscal 2011, according to the project overview.

In September 2011, Cameron purchased the local yard from Joy Global for $375 million. Three months earlier, the plant and a sister facility in Houston had been sold to Joy from Rowan Technologies for $1.1 billion. The local property dates to 1944, when it was started as a munitions plant.