ConocoPhillips closing Bartlesville Labs and selling air shuttle service

 

After years of layoffs at the ConocoPhillips operation in Bartlesville, the company confirmed Thursday it plans to close the Bartlesville Labs by the end of the year.

The Labs sector is located in the Phillips 66-owned Research Center and the closing is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter 2021. The company’s lease for the space will end in the second quarter of 2022.

The Texas based company also plans to end its corporate air shuttle services between Bartlesville and Midland,Texas; Carlsbad, New Mexico;  Dickinson, North Dakota; and Houston on March 1 of this year.

No reason was given for the closing, according to The Oklahoman which reported a spokesperson stated the company does not “anticipate a significant impact to our overall workforce in Bartlesville.

ConocoPhillips completed its acquisition of Concho Resources in January and plans to relocate about two dozen Concho employees to Bartlesville sometime this year.

KWON radio in Bartlesville reported the air shuttle service reportedly was sold and the management of the Bartlesville Municipal Airport will be returned to the city on Sept. 1.

The company announced a series of layoffs over the past several years. In 2018, Phillips 66 had a workforce reduction in Bartlesville and the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reported at the time the company had nearly 2,000 workers located there.

In 2017, Premier Oilfield Laboratories, LLC acquired the assets of the ConocoPhillips Subsurface Laboratory in Bartlesville. The assets were used to help Premier’s existing operations in Houston, Aberdeen and Cairo.

The sale was made after ConocoPhillips decided in 2016 to decommission the subsurface part of its Bartlesville labs.