ConocoPhillips moving 500 jobs to Bartlesville

ConocoPhillips is reassigning 500 jobs to Bartlesville by the end of 2006. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the jobs are support positions. The jobs are similar to the ones Phillips Petroleum

Tuesday, September 20th 2005, 11:13 am

By: News On 6

ConocoPhillips is reassigning 500 jobs to Bartlesville by the end of 2006.

News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the jobs are support positions. The jobs are similar to the ones Phillips Petroleum left behind in Bartlesville after their merger with Conoco and the move of the company's headquarters to Houston, Texas.

ConocoPhillips officials declined an on-camera interview, but a news release says the jobs will come in waves. The company expects to have 300 in place by the middle of 2006, and the rest by the end of the year. They'll all work out of ConocoPhillips' downtown Bartlesville offices.

It doesn't make up for the hundreds of jobs the city lost after Phillips merged with Conoco, but Bartlesville Mayor Julie Daniels hopes its a sign of good things to come. "Well, the announcement today also included the possibility of more jobs in 2007. So I would say to my fellow residents of Bartlesville, 'We need to get ready. They're coming.'"

Folks in Bartlesville have been hearing rumors of ConocoPhillips' jobs headed back to Bartlesville for a while now. Mayor Daniels says the city has been busy preparing for just such a scenario. The housing market is booming and ConocoPhillips is a big reason why.

In the news release, ConocoPhillips also says some services may also be moved to Ponca City.