ConocoPhillips To Bring 750 Jobs To Bartlesville

ConocoPhillips is relocating hundreds employees to Bartlesville. <br/><br/>The oil company announced last week another 250 jobs will make the move to town, adding to the 500 they announced last year.

Tuesday, May 16th 2006, 9:27 am

By: News On 6

ConocoPhillips is relocating hundreds employees to Bartlesville.

The oil company announced last week another 250 jobs will make the move to town, adding to the 500 they announced last year. Most of those employees will make the move this summer.

News on 6 reporter Jennifer Loren looks at the impact this is having on Bartlesville.

Tony and Karen Augustino just moved to Bartlesville from Houston. Tony Augustino: "Company was really great in helping us relocate and get settled and itâ€™s good to be here." They were one of the first families to relocate to Bartlesville in the wave of Conoco Phillips employees headed this way. Karen Augustino: "Itâ€™s just more relaxed than we found things in Houston. You know, a lot more personal time, you know back to family life and that kind of thing. So we've been really liking that."

But beginning this summer, hundreds more will be moving in to Bartlesville's neighborhoods and the people already living in Bartlesville say they're ready for them.

Gerald Coast and his family have been in the construction business since the 1950s. His company has almost 700 residential lots under construction right now in Bartlesville. Each home has a price tag between $200,000 and $400,000. "It looks like that they're going to have a customer for each one of them as soon as we can get them done."

Coast has gone through several Bartlesville booms and busts. Most of them, he says, have been direct results of a Phillips-run economy. "Well I hope it continues."

The Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce say they've been preparing for growth. Jim Fram with the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce: "We're getting ready all the time. Itâ€™s a constant battle, but itâ€™s the kind of battle that we like to be fighting."

But he says their growth is not just based on ConocoPhillips. They're expecting an additional 750 jobs from other companies. "Well, we've established a community that's a good place to live. We have an excellent school system. We've really focused on attracting really highly-educated, highly-qualified young people between the ages of 25 and 45 and we're beginning to see the effects of that. This is a place where people want to live and work."

ConocoPhillips expects more than 100 of their employees and their families to move to Bartlesville by the end of June. They're also recruiting local people to fill several of their open positions.