SemGroup Aquired By Energy Transfer

[shavethewhales]

Another blow to Tulsa's status as an energy company hub. Semgroup, one of the larger diversified midstream companies in the US, is being acquired by a Dallas company. Like all such acquisitions, they'll keep a Tulsa office, but will slowly bleed jobs southward starting from the top.

Once again Tulsa feels locked in a cycle of one step forward, one or two steps back. There have been some good news on the jobs front lately, but the loss of these corporate jobs is another big blow. Dallas/Houston is just continuing to suck everything energy related into it's vortex.

[Conan71]

At this point it's speculation that SEM will bleed off jobs to Dallas, this seems to benefit SEM more on their remote terminal operations on the Gulf Coast and northern part of the U.S. 

[SXSW]

What's the current size of the Tulsa office?  I know it was pretty large at one point then reduced significantly after the bankruptcy/Tom Kivisto scandal.  Tulsa is still a midstream hub so I imagine they will maintain a presence.  Better SemGroup than Williams. 

[Oil Capital]

At this point it's speculation that SEM will bleed off jobs to Dallas, this seems to benefit SEM more on their remote terminal operations on the Gulf Coast and northern part of the U.S.  

It might be speculation, but it's well-informed speculation. It would be shocking if this did not result in a bleed-off of jobs to Dallas, and I would additionally "speculate" that the bleed-off will happen pretty quickly and be substantial, relative to the current size of the Tulsa office. Note the language used when discussing the Tulsa office - they only agreed to maintain "an office" in Tulsa for two years after the deal closes. They apparently didn't even bother to dress it up with ambiguous language like "significant presence." Anybody working in the SemGroup offices would be well-advised to get their resume updated, TODAY.

[Jeff P]

It might be speculation, but it's well-informed speculation. It would be shocking if this did not result in a bleed-off of jobs to Dallas, and I would additionally "speculate" that the bleed-off will happen pretty quickly and be substantial, relative to the current size of the Tulsa office. Note the language used when discussing the Tulsa office - they only agreed to maintain "an office" in Tulsa for two years after the deal closes. They apparently didn't even bother to dress it up with ambiguous language like "significant presence." Anybody working in the SemGroup offices would be well-advised to get their resume updated, TODAY.

ETE's model hasn't been to consolidate a bunch of jobs at their Dallas HQ. Their HQ workforce is actually quite small given the size of their company.  That's basically because of how they have grown the company via acquisitions in a relatively short period of time.  Their model has been to acquire companies, maintain their relatively small administrative HQ in Dallas - eliminate management/administration from the companies they acquire but leave their operations folks alone to run their businesses.

What does this mean for SemGroup? If it follows what they have previously done, it would mean most of the management/administrative type jobs would go, of course, but any operations/assets-focused people would probably stay.

Again that's just speculation on my part based on what they have done in the past. I was pretty interested in this topic a few years ago...

[Oil Capital]

ETE's model hasn't been to consolidate a bunch of jobs at their Dallas HQ. Their HQ workforce is actually quite small given the size of their company.  That's basically because of how they have grown the company via acquisitions in a relatively short period of time.  Their model has been to acquire companies, maintain their relatively small administrative HQ in Dallas - eliminate management/administration from the companies they acquire but leave their operations folks alone to run their businesses.

What does this mean for SemGroup? If it follows what they have previously done, it would mean most of the management/administrative type jobs would go, of course, but any operations/assets-focused people would probably stay.

Again that's just speculation on my part based on what they have done in the past. I was pretty interested in this topic a few years ago...

This is from back in January, just one month after the sale to Energy Transfer closed:

Energy Transfer LP has laid off 108 employees at its Tulsa, Oklahoma office, according to a notice sent to the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development.

The layoffs come as a result of the Dallas-based pipeline company’s acquisition of SemGroup Corp., which was finalized in early December 2019.

https://www.rigzone.com/news/energy_transfer_lays_off_108_oklahoma_workers-06-jan-2020-160725-article/

For context, according to the World, Semgroup employed 175 people in Tulsa at the time the sale was announced. So, about 62% of the office was laid off in January. Presumably, some others have been transferred to Dallas and some others have no doubt left for other opportunities (having seen the writing on the wall)  Curious how many employees are left in the Tulsa office. Do they even have 50 people?