Two of the companies atop the Fortune list, Chesapeake Energy and DevonEnergy, are major contributors to the 1, 300 new energy jobs birthed in the city in 2010 alone.
As just one example, last week I spoke with John Schiller, chief executive of offshore driller Energy XXI, who used to drill a lot of deepwater wells when he was with Ocean Energy and DevonEnergy.
In the past couple of years Chinese state energy firms have struck multi-billion-dollar shale deals in America with Chesapeake Energy, mainly for shale oil, and with DevonEnergy Corp for gas.