Nearly 200 employees of WPX Energy will lose their jobs as the company wraps up its Tulsa operations over the $12 billion merger with Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy.
WPX filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act with the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development. The filing listing at least 182 jobs that will be eliminated throughout the remainder of the year.
Some employees will be terminated at the end of this week while others will continue their employment at different months until the end of the year. The last two employees, according to the WARN filing will lost their jobs on Dec. 31, 2021.
At the time of the merger, layoffs were anticipated. Some WPX employees were selected to join Devon and work in Oklahoma City.
Myra Long, the Human Resources Business Partner at WPX indicated in the notice that WPX Energy provided its initial WARN Act notice in early January but due to changing business requirements and longer than expected transition periods, dates were extended.
“The Company anticipates providing some job offers that will require relocation to its headquarters located in Oklahoma City,” stated Long in her notice to the state.
The merger completion was announced in January. It was an all-stock merger that turned Devon Energy into a dominant player in the Delaware Basin with a 400,000 net acre position. Devon will also operate in the Anadarko Basin, Williston Basin, Eagle Ford Shale and the Powder River Basin.
In the merger, WPX Energy shareholders received 0.5165 shares of Devon’s common stock for each WPX share they owned. As a result of the completion, Devon shareholders ended up with 57% ownership of the combined company and WXP shareholders owned the other 43%.
Company leadership and analysts figured the merger of equals created an oil company with an enterprise value of $12 billion based on stock closing prices in early January.