The Oklahoman claimed it was the Headquarters........

But, it could be wrong......

I think it's interesting that Sullivan was playing dumb here.

Anyways, seems like Tulsa could've saved Sunoco with a decent incentives package...once again they got beat out by Sugar Land, TX, a suburb of Houston. That's pretty bad when suburbs are starting to offer bigger incentives than our large cities in this state.

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"Tulsa loses Sunoco to Houston

By Adam Wilmoth
The Oklahoman

Tulsa is losing another major energy operation — and more than 100 jobs — as Sunoco Logistics Partners LP on Monday confirmed it is moving the headquarters of its Western Pipeline System to the Houston area by January 2006.
The announcement came about two weeks after Sunoco said it was considering a move and had asked for incentive packages from both communities.

"The decision to move Sunoco Logistics' Western Pipeline System headquarters from Tulsa to Houston was made after a thorough review of several key factors," Deborah M. Fretz, Sunoco Logistics president and chief executive officer said in a statement. "One key factor was the increased availability of people in the Houston area with the requisite experience and disciplines that will sustain the excellent performance Sunoco Logistics has achieved and continue its strategic growth. We sincerely thank the city of Tulsa for having been an integral part of the company's success."

Randy Sullivan, Tulsa city council chairman and 23-year oil and gas land manager, objected to Sunoco's claims about the labor market.

"I can't imagine that the expertise they need for their pipeline division is not here," Sullivan said. "I have not found any independents expressing a particular problem with the labor market in Tulsa. That may be a little window dressing, but I don't think that's the core reason."

Although nearly all of the energy industry nationwide has struggled to fill key positions as the industry has grown in recent years, Sullivan said the expanded presence of both the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University in Tulsa has helped that community remain competitive.

Sunoco also said it chose Sugar Land, Texas, for its division headquarters in part because of the "significant financial incentives" the community offered. The company said it expects to sign a lease when the incentive package has been approved and that it expects to complete the move by January 2006.

The move will send about 150 positions from Tulsa to Houston, although only about 110 currently are filled. Those employees have been offered jobs with the company when it moves, Sunoco said.

Sunoco's refinery and marketing operations, however, will remain unchanged, said Scott McCord, Sunoco Logistics' manager of lease crude acquisition.

"We hope our decision to move to Houston is going to be transparent to our customers," McCord said. "All the people independent producers deal with are going to remain in Tulsa."

Still, the move comes as a blow to a community formerly known as the "energy capital of the world" but has since lost dozens of energy company operations, most recently the headquarters of Citgo Petroleum Corp.

"Certainly Tulsa has the wherewithal and is well diversified enough to replace the jobs, particularly in the travel industry and in the gaming industry," said Jake Dollarhide, money manager and chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management Co. in Tulsa.

"But what is cause for concern is that Houston has won again in the battle for the energy industry. Tulsa's dominance as being the center of the universe for the energy industry is far in the rearview mirror."