Occidental Petroleum building up its Texas staff

Reuters:

Occidental Petroleum Corp may still be headquartered in Los Angeles, as it has been since being founded nearly a century ago, but its center of gravity is shifting to Houston, capital of the U.S. energy industry.

While the fourth-largest U.S. oil company would not disclose the number of employees based in either city, a LinkedIn search reveals 286 people who list Oxy as their current employer in Los Angeles, compared with 1,491 in Houston.

Occidental's Texas presence is growing larger still. A search of 287 U.S. jobs listed by the company on www.oxy.com found 65 in Houston - ranging from senior engineers to software administrators. Most of the rest were at field operations in California and elsewhere in Texas.

As for Los Angeles, there was a single opening last month, for a security officer, and now there is one for an accountant.

The trend suggests just how far the California corporate stalwart has strayed from its roots in order to grab the deep oil-industry talent available in Houston. It also highlights a shift in jobs growth generally in Texas over the Golden State.

"The geologists, the geophysicists, the petroleum engineers - they tend to concentrate in one place. If you're looking for those skills and want to compete for those skills, you have to go to that spot," said Robert Gilmer, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business. "If you want people who have film and movie skills, you go to Hollywood."

So the head of Oxy's Americas unit, Bill Albrecht, has worked out of Houston since last year, and its recently appointed general counsel, Marcia Backus, will be "primarily based in Houston," an Oxy spokeswoman said.

With U.S. energy companies ramping up their hiring to tap the country's fast-growing new oil and gas resources, ensuring access to skills clearly outweighs a firm's legacy in any given location. Oxy is just one of several energy companies expanding their presence in Houston, helping fuel an office property boom not seen in years.

Exxon Mobil Corp and Phillips 66 are building new office developments in Houston. And California's largest and oldest energy company, Chevron Corp , made headlines late last year with plans to relocate 850 jobs to Houston while it builds a brand-new tower to complement its already substantial presence there.

Other energy-focused companies have moved headquarters out of California entirely, bound for Texas. Fluor Corp , an engineering company now based outside Dallas, had called California's Orange County home until 2006. Calpine Corp , now a Houston-based power company, abandoned San Jose three years later.
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It makes sense for major energy companies to relocate to where the energy market is still vibrant.  Energy companies in California are in a hostile environment that makes it hard to attract talented people no matter how nice the weather may be.  In Texas there is a supportive environment for the expansion of the energy business and there are many new opportunities.