Arco to Transfer Up to 280 Workers to Dallas Suburb

Up to 280 employees of Atlantic Richfield’s international unit will be transferred from Los Angeles to the Dallas area by early next year, Arco said Friday.

The move is part of the relocation of the headquarters of Arco International Oil & Gas Co. to Plano, a Dallas suburb. The company said all 280 headquarters employees, who work in leased space at the Wells Fargo building downtown, will be offered jobs at the new site.

They will move into a new office complex on a 66-acre site, where about 1,000 Arco employees work in research and technical services, geoscience and data processing.

“Plano is the home of Arco’s worldwide research facilities, and this move will integrate our people with the technology and technologists already there,” said Mike R. Bowlin, president of Arco International.

Arco has most of its oil reserves in Alaska, and its international operations are small, accounting for about 500 of the company’s nearly 26,000 employees. Overseas production is from offshore Indonesia, Dubai and the North Sea.

Dallas is also the headquarters of Arco Oil & Gas Co., which is responsible for domestic oil exploration, development and production outside Alaska.

The contingent being transferred represents about 16% of Arco’s work force in downtown Los Angeles, which consists of 1,700 employees at Arco Plaza and four other sites.