Devon to acquire WPX

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Tulsa may have had offices of most every oil company in the world in the 60s and 70s, but it certainly never had the Headquarters of most every oil company in the world. Once you get past Skelly, Cities Service/Citgo, what other oil companies of any size were headquartered in Tulsa?

Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Shell, Gulf, ARCO, Amoco, Chevron, Phillips, Conoco, BP, Total, Occidental, Unocal, Sunoco, . . . I'm pretty sure none were headquartered in Tulsa.

I think you are confusing Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas when it comes to building assemblies for the Boeing 747.  Rockwell did so in Tulsa (and that operation eventually evolved into Spirit Aerosystems). 

You're right on the Douglas/Boeing/Rockwell. As for Sunoco, they were Sun Ray DX, Sun Oil Refinery, and the Sun building at 9th & Detroit. And while they weren't 'headquartered" in Tulsa, they did have a major presence. Amoco had their research facility at 41st and Yale, Sinclair had a place at I-44 and Darlington, Chevron had a building downtown, and someone else had one on the SE corner of 21st & Lewis, Shell had offices at 66th & Yale across from the St Francis medical center buildings.

[Oil Capital]

You're right on the Douglas/Boeing/Rockwell. As for Sunoco, they were Sun Ray DX, Sun Oil Refinery, and the Sun building at 9th & Detroit. And while they weren't 'headquartered" in Tulsa, they did have a major presence. Amoco had their research facility at 41st and Yale, Sinclair had a place at I-44 and Darlington, Chevron had a building downtown, and someone else had one on the SE corner of 21st & Lewis, Shell had offices at 66th & Yale across from the St Francis medical center buildings.

Yes, as I acknowledged, many  of the world's oil companies had some offices or facilities in Tulsa.  But they did not have their HQs here (which is the claim you made).    Outside of Skelly and Cities Service/Citgo, and until 1968 Sunray/DX, were there any?

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Yes, as I acknowledged, many  of the world's oil companies had some offices or facilities in Tulsa.  But they did not have their HQs here (which is the claim you made).    Outside of Skelly and Cities Service/Citgo, and until 1968 Sunray/DX, were there any?

I think you and I are looking at "headquarters" in a different way from each other. I was thinking in the terms of regional HQ not main HQ. I was going on the thought that so many companies had offices/HQ in Tulsa because of the pipeline network that centers around Cushing. They may have had their pipeline/transportation HQ in Tulsa while the corporate main HQ was elsewhere. By the same token, they may have had drilling and exploration in Dallas, and refinery HQ in Houston to take care of the Gulf Coast area.

Back in the 70's and 80's who was where and what operations were where became a blur with consolidation and companies buying or merging with each other IIRC. Production in the US went up after the Arab Oil Embargo, and then in 1984 when OPEC flooded the market with cheap oil it became survival of the fittest or pray to God you look good enough to be bought.

When I lived in Oregon there were two stations in the little town I lived in. There had been three but BP pulled out. One was a Chevron, the other was a 76. But if you looked at the 76 sign it also said ConocoPhillips under the 76 logo.


Wish I could find my book "Oil In Oklahoma" by Bob Gregory as it has a lot of info about the people and the companies that founded the oil industry in OK.