“I know this news is unsettling.” Alan Armstrong, CEO of Williams Cos.
Word that the merger of Williams Cos. with Dallas-based Energy Transfer Equity will likely mean the consolidation of corporate offices and headquarters and relocation to Texas is still reverberating throughout Tulsa. Community leaders are still shocked and angry over the announcement by ETE in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
What’s concerning most is that Energy Transfer said at the start of the merger negotiations that the headquarters and operations would remain in Tulsa. Now there is the prospect that many of the 1,000 employees at Williams Cos. will be lost, not to mention the few hundred who also work in Oklahoma City.
The revelation by ETE is yet another serious blow to Tulsa’s economy. Tulsa, like most cities with a heavy concentration of oil and gas firms has suffered losses of employees in the downtown of the energy sector.
The Tulsa World found that some economic experts tried to explain why Energy Transfer did an about-face.
The Tulsa World
