On the oil and gas side of the energy sector, Houston's pull remains a force to be reckoned with, and numerous oil-related jobs have relocated there from Oklahoma in recent years. But the state remains a powerhouse in oil and gas. "There's no doubt that today the bigger part of the oil and gas industry is centered in Houston with more employees in terms of numbers," says Devon Energy's John Richels. "Having said that, we have three of top 11 independents in the oil and gas industry headquartered in Oklahoma City. So we still have a critical mass in the industry."

Wal-Mart opened a distribution center south of Bartlesville in 2005. The roof of the center covers more than 20 acres (8 hectares) of space.

      Devon routinely recruits employees from the Houston area, says Richels. "It's interesting that once we get them here how much they enjoy it and how many of them say they don't want to leave."
      Phillips Petroleum was incorporated in Bartlesville in 1917, and was headquartered in the northeastern Oklahoma city until it merged with Conoco in 2002 at which time headquarters moved to Houston. Still, key operations are run from the Bartlesville location, including global systems and services and some corporate and human resourcesfunctions.
      "The strategy for ConocoPhillips is to leverage the physical infrastructure and employee resources we have in Bartlesville and provide services around the globe as the company expands its reach and continues to grow," says Gene Batchelder, senior vice president, services, and chief information officer. Services in his purview include human resources, accounting, information technology, safety and others. "As we expand the scope of what we do, the intent is to provide those core services through the teams in Bartlesville. The company also operates a research center in Bartlesville as well as in Ponca City.
      "We're proving that we have a competitive cost structure [in Oklahoma]," says Batchelder. "You hear a lot about outsourcing and offshoring to India or eastern Europe, and we might not be able to compete dollar for dollar in terms of direct employee salaries. But employee loyalty, commitment and productivity makes up for a little of what we lose from a direct salary standpoint."
      As if to underscore the importance of its Oklahoma roots, ConocoPhillips is building museums in Bartlesville and Ponca City to showcase its collection of artifacts, photographs and other historical items. Visitors to Bartlesville would also want to see the Price Tower, a 19-story office tower and hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Harold Price, founder of H.C. Price Co., an oil services company. The building is Wright's only skyscraper.

Small Towns with Big Appeal Two Oklahoma towns — Durant and Guymon — made "Boomtown USA" author Jack Schultz's list of Golden Eagle Top 100 Agurbs. Published in 2004 by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), the book defines an agurb as "a prospering rural town with a tie to agriculture and a location outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area. To be an agurb, a town has to have experienced growth in population or employment from 1990 to 2000 and have per capita income growing at more than 2 percent per year from 1989 to 1999."       To make the list, the towns had to "excel in most of the 7 keys" discussed in the book and "have much to offer in a number of other critical areas that impact a town's quality of life," such as healthcare, recreation, education, cost of living and access to transportation, among other factors. Nearly 400 towns were in the running for the Golden Eagle designation. Five other Oklahoma towns made a list of Agurb Winners in the book. They are Jay, Madill, Pryor, Stillwater and Stilwell.

      Just south of Bartlesville is a newly opened Wal-Mart distribution center on a 150-acre (61-hectare) parcel adjacent to Highway 75. The center houses a 475,000-sq.-ft. (44,127-sq.-m.) dry-goods warehouse and a 395,256-sq.-ft. (36,720-sq.-m.) perishable warehouse; the roof covers an area of more than 20 acres (8 hectares). The center opened in May and was fully operational in August with more than 600 employees on the payroll.
      "That was a model project with local, state and regional involvement," says Jim Fram, president and CEO of the Bartlesville Area Chamber of Partnership. Everyone with an interest in landing the huge center — from the city to the Tulsa Area Partnership to the state — share the philosophy that obstacles are temporary and that a way must be found to make the project work. "We were able to get a 15-minute turnaround on approval for an overpass and some other things that really impressed Wal-Mart officials," says Fram. The city invested substantially in utility infrastructure to prepare the greenfield site for development, which also made land adjacent to the distribution center more valuable and ready for development.
      And speaking of Wal-Mart, Oklahoma's proximity to the retail colossus's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., headquarters is a key logistics and job-growth attribute. In fact, Bentonville is so close to Oklahoma — just 20 miles (32 km.) as the crow flies — that a significant number of Wal-Mart employees work in Oklahoma. Wal-Mart Administrative Services employs 250 people in Bartlesville.