Aug. 22--The drilling rigs dotting the Dallas-Fort Worth landscape aren't the only signs of the oil and natural gas boom.

Look at the office expansions by energy companies to house their growing employee ranks or increase their profile.

Take Chesapeake Energy. In April, it paid $104 million for retailer Pier 1 Imports' headquarters, a striking tower in Fort Worth.

"It certainly gives us a significant presence in our own place downtown, which is the epicenter of activity," said Jerri Robbins, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake. "We are growing fast. Every Monday at a staff meeting, we have new people."

Chesapeake and other energy companies attribute recent real estate moves to their production growth in the Barnett Shale, a massive underground natural gas field in North Texas, as well as other oil and gas plays in Texas and other states.

The energy industry has helped bolster the Dallas-Fort Worth office market, which has seen net leasing fall 50 percent in the first half of 2008 from last year, said Bill McClung, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas.

Energy firms initiated more than a dozen office moves -- leasing space or buying buildings -- in the past year.

Recent examples include:

Crosstex Energy this fall will move its headquarters and more than 450 workers a short distance to larger space in Uptown Dallas.

Exco Resources Inc. has doubled its North Dallas headquarters space.

Chief Oil and Gas has expanded 50 percent at Dallas' Preston Center in the past year.

Denbury Resources developed a new 102,000-square-foot building next to a 100,000-square-foot building in Plano.

Pioneer Natural Resources added 70,000 square feet in Las Colinas.

In a March report for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Texas economist Ray Perryman said office demand has totaled nearly 4 million square feet in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since major Barnett Shale drilling began. He estimated that 83,823 related jobs have fueled that demand.

"As oil and gas producers have become major acquirers and major players in the Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate market, they're competing with investors to acquire land and offices," said Bob Scully, managing direct of CB Richard Ellis in Fort Worth. "They're also bidding on vacant land, shopping centers and warehouses for strategic drilling sites all over Fort Worth."

Fort Worth

The Barnett Shale has significantly affected the Fort Worth office market. Vacancies have fallen and rents have risen.

The Fort Worth central business district's vacancy rate was 9.4 percent as of June 30, according to CBRE research. Average rents rose 20 percent to $20.50 from a year earlier.

In comparison, Dallas-Fort Worth's vacancy rate was 16.7 percent and rents rose 4 percent to $19.41 in the same period. The Dallas central business district's vacancy was 20 percent.

"Fort Worth is just going wild," said Trevor Rees-Jones, chief executive of Dallas-based Chief Oil and Gas, which was one of the first to drill in the Barnett Shale. "The Barnett's economic impact will be felt in a number of ways, not just for the oil and a gas companies. It's also flowing into the hands of mineral rights owners, suppliers to the Barnett Shale, retailers and other companies."

Multiple offices

Whether in Fort Worth or Dallas, energy companies are growing so fast that some have multiple offices in one area.

Starting this month, Chesapeake will fill about half of its new 20-story tower, but it still needs more space. It rents about 120,000 square feet in two other downtown Fort Worth buildings.

Chesapeake, which is one of the largest producers in the Barnett Shale, plans to hire more people, Ms. Robbins said.

Crosstex is leasing 114,000 square feet in Uptown Dallas after opening an office in Fort Worth earlier this year.

"We have outgrown our office facilities," said Jill McMillan, a spokeswoman for Crosstex. The company hired 225 people last year and plans to hire at least that many this year, she said. Its Barnett Shale pipeline miles have nearly doubled to 730 since 2006.

Real estate brokers expect continued office demand as the Barnett Shale grows.

Last year, the field produced 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. An estimated 39 trillion cubic feet still can be extracted.

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