ONEOK spinning off distribution companies; moving to First Place Tower

[Nik]

ONEOK is separating its natural gas distribution companies (Oklahoma Natural Gas, Texas Gas Services and Kansas Gas Services) into a new publicly traded entity - ONE Gas. This new company will be headquartered at the First Place Tower (15 E. 5th St).

http://ir.oneok.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=120070&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1841084&highlight=

[swake]

ONEOK is separating its natural gas distribution companies (Oklahoma Natural Gas, Texas Gas Services and Kansas Gas Services) into a new publicly traded entity - ONE Gas. This new company will be headquartered at the First Place Tower (15 E. 5th St).

http://ir.oneok.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=120070&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1841084&highlight=

That's good news for the First Place Tower. Are they buying the building (I hope).

[DTowner]

Very good news, indeed.  Given the security procedures at the Oneok Building, this may explain why so much of the buiding has been emptied out.

[Nik]

That's good news for the First Place Tower. Are they buying the building (I hope).

They are not buying, they are leasing.

[swake]

They are not buying, they are leasing.

Thanks for the information.

Buying would have been better news, but this is still good for the building. Cimerex put a ton of work into their space before moving so I am sure the floors that they had are very nice. Do you how much space One Gas is taking?

[Oil Capital]

Thanks for the information.

Buying would have been better news, but this is still good for the building. Cimerex put a ton of work into their space before moving so I am sure the floors that they had are very nice. Do you how much space One Gas is taking?

Probably not a huge space.  This will likely be a relatively small holding company office.  The three operating companies each have their own headquarters... in Oklahoma City, Overland Park, and Austin.  I would guess a lot less than what Cimarex formerly occupied.

[swake]

Probably not a huge space.  This will likely be a relatively small holding company office.  The three operating companies each have their own headquarters... in Oklahoma City, Overland Park, and Austin.  I would guess a lot less than what Cimarex formerly occupied.

ONG is in Oklahoma City? Since when?

[sgrizzle]

Probably not a huge space.  This will likely be a relatively small holding company office.  

ONE Gas will be one of the largest natural gas utilities in the United States, serving more than 2 million customers in three states,

Yeah, sounds like a small office.

[Conan71]

ONG is in Oklahoma City? Since when?

Oneok has good-sized operations there though that may be more the Enogex division

[Oil Capital]

ONG is in Oklahoma City? Since when?

I don't remember exactly when.  But they moved the ONG HQ to OKC some time between 1996 and 2008.

Edit:  Found it.  May, 1999.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/ONG_moving_office/19990504_Ne_a1ongmo

[Oil Capital]

With the spinoff of the gas distribution business and the discontinuance of its energy services business, I wonder where Oneok will be on the Fortune 500.  Does anyone have any idea of the revenues generated by the discontinued and spun-off businesses?

It's possible the separation could result in a third Fortune 500 company for Tulsa.

[Oil Capital]

Oneok has good-sized operations there though that may be more the Enogex division

Enogex is part of OGE, not a part of Oneok.

[Oil Capital]

Yeah, sounds like a small office.

I sense sarcasm.   You might want to take a look at the size of the headquarters staff at companies such as Boeing and ExxonMobil relative to the size of the companies.  They are set up similarly, with operating companies headquartered separately from the holding company HQ.

[swake]

I sense sarcasm.   You might want to take a look at the size of the headquarters staff at companies such as Boeing and ExxonMobil relative to the size of the companies.  They are set up similarly, with operating companies headquartered separately from the holding company HQ.

The old article said that ONG moved 100 employees to OKC when they moved. That's not nearly enough to handle all the back office functions. I bet ONG needs more people than that just in customer service. Oneok must have centralized IT, HR, accounting and the like. The new company will need the same. Anyway, the current news articles said the three companies are merging.

I checked and while I can't separate out ONE GAS from ONEOK there are several pages of jobs in Tulsa for the combined companies. There are no jobs open in Oklahoma City, just one in Overland Park and three in Austin. And three of the four open jobs in those three locations were in the field. It doesn't seem like those offices are very large, at least not anymore.

[Oil Capital]

The old article said that ONG moved 100 employees to OKC when they moved. That's not nearly enough to handle all the back office functions. I bet ONG needs more people than that just in customer service. Oneok must have centralized IT, HR, accounting and the like. The new company will need the same. Anyway, the current news articles said the three companies are merging.

I checked and while I can't separate out ONE GAS from ONEOK there are several pages of jobs in Tulsa for the combined companies. There are no jobs open in Oklahoma City, just one in Overland Park and three in Austin. And three of the four open jobs in those three locations were in the field. It doesn't seem like those offices are very large, at least not anymore.

Where do the current articles say the three companies are merging?    

I think you are correct that at least some of the back office functions are centralized for the three companies.  Nonetheless, I think we are talking about a relatively small HQ.  To be clear, I am not suggesting 10 or 50 people.   This got started in the context of someone asking if One Gas was buying the entire building.  Clearly the HQ will be much smaller than anything that would require all of or close to all of First Place Tower.  Further, I suspect their HQ will be smaller than the 400 people that Cimarex formerly had in First Place Tower.

Re: your employment search.  By your own admission, it was meaningless, since you were unable to separate One Gas from Oneok.