In Mastiogale’s 10th edition of its industrywide Natural Gas Marketer Customer Value Study, respondents to survey questions indicated that “reliability of supply” was their top need when choosing a gas supplier.

Following reliability, the telephone survey of 749 natural gas buyers found that supplier honesty and trustworthiness was the second most important quality, followed by “historically dependable in meeting commitments,” “price competitiveness,” and “accurate and timely nominations.”

The survey rated 180 natural gas marketers, of which 29 had sufficient ratings to be included in the 2006 report. The study results were grouped into three index categories: overall, major marketer, and regional marketer. The winner in the “overall” and “regional” categories was ProLiance Energy. Oneok Energy Services won in the “major marketer” category.

Besides ProLiance and Oneok, seven other marketers exceeded the survey’s industry benchmark. In alphabetical order they are: Atmos Energy, BP, ConocoPhillips, Nexen Inc., SCANA, Texican Energy, and WPS Energy Services.

Marketers were rated in 26 attributes measuring performance in five categories: customer service, operations, products and services, company reputation and image, and pricing.

In results made available last month, Nexen topped the rankings of gas purchasers/marketers in a new customer satisfaction survey based on 300 interviews with gas producers by Missouri-based Mastiogale (see Daily GPI, Oct. 6). Other top buyers that exceeded the industry benchmark were BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell Energy Trading and Corpus Christi-based marketer Shoreline Gas.

Mastiogale is based in St. Joseph, MO. For more information, visit https://www.mastiogale.com/studies/gmktoverview.html.

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