Devon’s relocation highlights corporate energy flight from Oklahoma

Devon’s decision to move its headquarters out of Oklahoma is the latest data point in a long-standing pattern in the state’s energy sector of corporate flight.

For more than a century, Oklahoma has served as a cornerstone of the American energy industry, developing a robust ecosystem. 

Tulsa was really the reason Oklahoma entered international prominence, earning the “Oil Capital of the World” title in the early 1900s, namely with the discovery of the Glenn Pool oil field, according to the Metropolitan Library System. Several other oil field discoveries in the area followed throughout the 1910s and 1920s. 

The state’s sector further developed its legacy through the 20th century as major entities including Phillips Petroleum, and later, Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy, established headquarters in Oklahoma City.

More: Devon to move HQ to Houston; will maintain ‘significant’ OKC presence

However, due to mergers and corporate consolidations, Oklahoma’s grip on a claim as a top energy hub has loosened, particularly since the 2000s, though it’s still a high-activity area for drilling and production.

Haliburton

The first notable relocation was Haliburton, a company that moved to southern Oklahoma in 1920 in a strategic effort to operate near the Healdton Field close to Ardmore, according to the Texas State Historical Association. 

The association states Haliburton relocated its corporate headquarters from Duncan, a rural and remote area, to Dallas in 1961, about four years after the death of founder Erle Haliburton to grow further into an oilfield service corporation with global reach.

The move positioned the company a year later to purchase Brown & Root Inc., a transaction that helped Haliburton become a billion-dollar corporation. 

Cities Service Company (CITGO)

Cities Service Company once played a major role in Oklahoma’s economy, particularly in the mid 20th century, employing thousands of people in the state.

Federal courts ordered the company to divest either its public utility companies or its oil-and-gas firms, due to the passage of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act. Cities Service chose to separate from its more than 200 public utility companies, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. 

Cities Service rebranded its marketing operations to CITGO in 1965. The company in 1968 moved its headquarters from Bartlesville to Tulsa, where it remained until 1982. At that time, it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Company. After a $4 billion transaction, Occidental absorbed all Cities Service divisions except for refining and marketing, which continued to operate under the name Citgo, with headquarters in Houston, Texas. 

According to the University of Tulsa, in 2004, Citgo moved its headquarters from Tulsa to Houston, leaving a loss of about 700 industry jobs. Some experts say this signaled the end of Tulsa’s long-standing status as an energy hub.

ConocoPhillips 

Phillips Petroleum Company was founded and incorporated in Bartlesville in 1917, where it remained for 85 years.

Conoco Oil Company came to be in Utah in 1875, forming one of the first petroleum marketers in the western U.S.

Following a 1929 merger with Marland Oil, the company established its headquarters in Ponca City, Oklahoma. At its zenith, it employed more than 5,000 in Ponca City. 

In 2002, Conoco merged with Phillips Petroleum Company. With that, many employees left Oklahoma for Houston and others were laid off. The Economic Journal pegged employment at the site at around 1,500 employees in 2003. The Oklahoman in 2009 reported another 250 relocations from Ponca City, about 180 of the positions were scheduled to move to Houston and 70 more were relocated to Bartlesville.

Kerr-McGee 

Anderson & Kerr Drilling Company was founded in 1929 in Ada by Robert S. Kerr and Dean A. McGee. 

The Oklahoma Historical Society characterizes Kerr-McGee as “closely linked with the economic and political history of Oklahoma.”

Kerr-McGee pioneered key industry innovations. The company in 1947 established the first commercial offshore oil well. Half a century later, the company debuted the “spar,” a vertical floating platform designed for deepwater and ultra-deepwater, featuring a large-diameter vertical cylinder supporting a topside deck. Employment throughout international operations sat at about 4,000 at the turn of the millennium, according to the historical society.

Kerr-McGee directors in June 2006 agreed to a buyout by Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. The headquarters was relocated from Oklahoma City to Houston, Texas. 

The Williams Companies

Brothers David and Miller Williams started Williams-McQuary as a construction company in Fort Smith, Arkansas. A name change to Williams Brothers in 1910 represented the company’s entry into the energy industry, connecting gas fields in the Natural State.

Company headquarters moved to Tulsa in 1918, where it continued to build its reputation as a pipeline builder and even played a critical role in World War II for the War Emergency Pipeline system. The company changed its name to The Williams Companies in 1971 as it diversified into metals as well as fertilizer.

In Q4 2016, Williams Companies announced it was shuttering its Oklahoma City office in July 2017. The company moved most of the roughly 400 employees there to Tulsa and other locations.

Company leadership at the time said it was part of a restructuring plan to consolidate operating areas.

Williams Companies is still headquartered in Tulsa.

Chesapeake Energy

Chesapeake Energy Corp. was founded by Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward with about 10 employees.

The company went public in 1993, and the stock immediately began a sustained bullrun over the next few years as the company expanded its horizontal drilling and fracking operations.

By the mid 2000s, the company was the second-largest producer of natural gas, behind only Exxon. In 2005, the company had more than 1,700 employees, according to previous reports.

Just five years later, The Oklahoman reported the company to have increased to 8,200 employees. 

About half of its reported 10,800 employees in 2014 left the company during a price collapse. In 2020 another collapse knocked the employee count down to just under 2,300, according to the report.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation and Southwestern Energy Company in 2024 announced a merger. The combined company rebranded as Expand Energy Corporation.

The company decided to keep its headquarters in Oklahoma City, but opted to maintain a more significant presence in Houston, Texas. The Oklahoma City campus has seen further consolidation of its workforce into fewer buildings.