If for each requirement in `requirements.txt` you have the corresponding wheel file in `/path/to/wheelhouse`, this will not touch the network and complete. I have been using this approach the past 2 years with great success.
Well, I couldn't use wheels on Python 2.6 (and certainly not use a wheelhouse properly in the environments I had to tackle back then), but yes, this is a good approach.
You can learn a bit more about wheel in this very good article: http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/1/27/python-on-wheels/