Chevron Corporation announced its plans to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Friday morning in a deal that will affect The Woodlands area’s second-largest employer.

According to data from The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership, Anadarko employs around 3,666 people at its headquarters in The Woodlands Town Center. Chevron said it plans to maintain a local presence following the transaction, which carries a total enterprise value of $50 billion, but does not yet know the particulars of the acquisition’s effects on Anadarko.

“We expect that after the deal closes, there will be a Woodlands presence and there will continue to be a downtown presence for Chevron,” Chevron spokesperson Kent Robertson said in a telephone interview. “We should all expect that there will be changes, but it’s too early to know specifics.”

An Anadarko spokesperson referred comment to Chevron Friday morning.

Anadarko’s headquarters is centered around the landmark Allison and Hackett towers on The Woodlands Waterway. Community Impact Newspaper previously reported that the 30-story Allison Tower houses 817,000 square feet of office space, while the Hackett Tower comprises 549,000 square feet across 31 stories.

The deal’s impact on the prominent complex remains to be seen, and local business leaders are also waiting for more information on how the acquisition could affect Anadarko’s workforce and community relations.

“I know Anadarko’s been a great community partner. They’ve been involved in a lot of things in the community, and we hope Chevron steps up to the plate,” The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce CEO J.J. Hollie said Friday. “I look forward to the new relationship with Chevron; [I’m] excited about that.”

The Woodlands Area EDP CEO Gil Staley said he was also waiting for more information on the “significant” downtown office asset and its staffers.

“I don’t know if it means a loss in jobs. I don’t know if it’ll mean a gain in jobs,” Staley said. “We know definitely that Anadarko represents our largest [corporate] employer. … We are waiting anxiously alongside everyone else.”

Robertson said the two energy companies will continue their regular operations until the acquisition is completed, and Chevron plans to involve some Anadarko workers in the merger process.

“Retaining a talented and skilled workforce is a priority. One of the things that is attractive about the Anadarko acquisition is the employees,” he said. “We’ll be putting together an integration team, and that team will focus on bringing the two companies together and it will be staffed by people from both companies.”

Chevron already maintains a local footprint in The Woodlands through the Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, a separate enterprise jointly owned by Chevron and Phillips 66. The company is headquartered at 10001 Six Pines Drive and employs 833 people, making it the area's 13th-largest employer, according to The Woodlands Area EDP.