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Jacobs Engineering Group is selling its Houston energy and chemicals business to Australian construction and engineering firm WorleyParsons Ltd. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.3 billion.

The unit employs more than 2,000 Houston-area workers.

The deal represents a major shift in the energy engineering and construction sector with Jacobs essentially leaving oil and gas and WorleyParsons becoming a much bigger force in U.S. energy industry. The acquisition effectively doubles the size of WorleyParsons worldwide and makes it a larger player in Houston, where the company already has a hub in the Energy Corridor.

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Jacobs, headquartered in Dallas, will focus on its other two major business segments — aerospace, technology, environmental and nuclear, as well as buildings, infrastructure and advanced facilities. Both involve a lot more government work, especially with NASA. Jacobs will still employ more than 1,000 people in the Houston area after the deal closes.

Jacobs' main Houston office complex is in the Westchase area.

In a phone interview, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said Jacobs wasn't necessarily looking to sell. WorleyParsons, however, made a premium-priced offer as the energy industry grows again following the recent bust in oil prices, which bottomed out in 2016. With the energy sector becoming even more global, he said, so there was increasing push to either for Jacobs to keep growing in that area or to sell.

"We did this at the right time," he said.

The oil and gas sector has seen a wave of mergers in the engineering and construction space of late. Last year, the Scottish company Wood Group acquired Amec Foster Wheeler, of London, to create an even bigger player in energy engineering and construction. Just before that, Amec and Foster Wheeler had merged.

Paris-based Technip merged with Houston equipment manufacturer FMC Technologies to create TechnipFMC last year and give the company more breadth. And, this year, Houston's McDermott International acquired The Woodlands-based CB&I.

Jacobs relocated its headquarters two years ago from California to Dallas, but the firm already had a major Texas footprint, including in Houston.

The deal includes $2.6 billion in cash and $700 million in WorleyParsons stock. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2019.