Exxon's shale drilling unit XTO to move 1,600 jobs to Houston

ExxonMobil buys XTO for $24.9 billion. ExxonMobil buys XTO for $24.9 billion. Photo: RON JENKINS, AP Photo: RON JENKINS, AP Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Exxon's shale drilling unit XTO to move 1,600 jobs to Houston 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

XTO Energy, the U.S. shale drilling arm of Exxon Mobil, plans to move 1,600 workers to the Houston area from its Fort Worth headquarter offices starting in mid-2018.

The company plans to relocate 1,200 of those employees to Exxon Mobil's sprawling 385-acre campus between Spring and the Woodlands next year, and the remainder will move there in mid-2020. The move means Houston will become the new headquarters of the U.S. oil company.

Spokeswoman Suann Guthrie said Monday that XTO Energy is keeping about 350 people in the Fort Worth offices, though the company is planning to sell most of its office space in the area. The workers remaining in North Texas run the company's Barnett Shale operations near Fort Worth, as well as its midstream business.

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Exxon, Guthrie said, "has invested in a campus in Houston that currently houses all other Exxon Mobil business lines, and is seeing the benefits of that co-location." She added XTO isn't moving away from Fort Worth because it doesn't want to do business there; rather, the company wants to "collaborate and share expertise" with other segments of Exxon's business in the Houston area.

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