Photo by Paolo Ordoveza

The world’s largest publicly traded oil company is pulling out of Northern Virginia and moving thousands of jobs to Texas. Washington Business Journal reports that ExxonMobil will relocate its 2,100 employees in Fairfax County to a massive new headquarters the company is building in Houston.

Beginning in 2014, ExxonMobil will begin clearing out its 1.15 million square foot campus in Merrifield, which opened in 1980. The site is home to the company’s refining, research and engineering and fuels and lubricants operations.

The announcement that the company is pulling out of Fairfax came as something of a surprise to local officials, WBJ reports:

Fairfax County economic development officials, who have long said there we few indications that Exxon Mobil would leave the area entirely, finally acknowledged the oil giant will leave.

“There could be a number of good uses—corporate, government and institutional — for the Exxon Mobil site, and we will work to find another excellent employer for the site,” said Fairfax County Economic Development Authority chief executive Gerald Gordon.

Still, when it first announced the new Houston facility, WBJ notes, ExxonMobil said it only planned to consolidate its regional employees. Then again, plans change. Other recent decisions by the company include playing its CEO $25.2 million for 2011 and a shareholder vote denying employees same-sex partner benefits.