ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips Announces Museum Plans For Ponca City and Bartlesville

ConocoPhillips Announces Museum Plans For Ponca City and Bartlesville
Bartlesville and Ponca City, OK, May 13, 2005 --(PR.com)-- ConocoPhillips announced plans today to build museums in Bartlesville and Ponca City to commemorate the history of its Oklahoma heritage. The company will provide up to $5 million each for the new facilities, which are expected to be completed by May 2007, as part of Oklahoma’s centennial celebration.

“These museums reaffirm our Oklahoma roots,” said Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer, who made the announcement at a press conference accompanied by Governor Brad Henry. “Together, they will capture the rich heritage of the company in the state and the can-do attitude and pioneering spirit of the people who helped build the foundation for what is now ConocoPhillips. These facilities will be gifts to the people of Oklahoma, visitors to the state and our employee and retiree populations around the world."

“Like everything ConocoPhillips does, we know these new facilities will be built and operated to the highest standards,” said Governor Henry. “They will be impressive enhancements to both cities, for community education, tourism and economic development.”

The museums will be operated and funded by a private foundation established by ConocoPhillips, and admission will be free. Both museums will be designed by Haley Sharpe Design, a design firm that is currently creating the Oklahoma History Center.

The Phillips Petroleum Company Museum will be located in Bartlesville in an existing structure at Keeler Avenue and Fourth Street that now serves as one of several Arvest Bank downtown locations. Arvest Bank Group, which was represented by Chairman Jim Walton at the press announcement, is donating the building and a related parking lot to the museum foundation and relocating the affected employees to other Bartlesville offices.

The Conoco Museum in Ponca City will be built on vacant property owned by ConocoPhillips across from the company’s offices along South Avenue.

The contents of each museum will be drawn from ConocoPhillips’ extensive collection of artifacts, photographs and other historical items currently maintained by the corporate archives office in Bartlesville. Only a small portion of the collection currently is on display.

The new museums are expected to complement the several oil-related attractions already in Ponca City and Bartlesville including the Marland Estate, the Frank Phillips Home and Woolaroc.

Phillips Petroleum Company was incorporated in Bartlesville in 1917, the creation of brothers Frank and L.E. Phillips. The company maintained headquarters in Bartlesville until 2002, when it merged with Conoco and relocated company headquarters to Houston. Following the merger, Bartlesville became the new center for the corporation’s global systems and services, supporting ConocoPhillips operations all over the world. Other corporate and human resource functions are located in Bartlesville, where the company provides jobs for nearly 2,200 employees and more than 500 contractors.

Conoco, Inc. was formed in 1875 as Continental Oil Company in Utah. It became Oklahoma-based in 1929 when it merged with Marland Oil Company, whose founder, E.W. Marland, built the Ponca City refinery there in 1918. After the merger, company headquarters were established in Ponca City, until moving to Houston in 1949. Today, with a capacity to process 195,000 barrels of oil per day, the Ponca City refinery is the largest in Oklahoma. Overall, the company provides jobs for approximately 1,500 employees and 650 contractors in Ponca City through its credit card center, transportation office, technology research center and refining complex.

ConocoPhillips is an integrated oil company with interests around the world. For more information, go to www.conocophillips.com.

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Contacts:
Tracy Harlow
http://wh.conocophillips.com/utilities/contactus.asp?cid=contacts5

Shanley Wells
http://wh.conocophillips.com/utilities/contactus.asp?cid=contacts5