The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) and Oklahoma NaturalGas Co. (ONG) hammered out which of the LDC’s transmission anddistribution assets will be regulated and which will be unregulatedand open to competitive bidding. Once sufficient competition existsin the marketplace, competitors will bid to provide service usingthe unbundled assets. Unbundled assets are to be removed from ONG’srate base.

“The real significance is that this order paves the way for usto solicit competitive bids for upstream services to serve thenatural gas company,” said ONG spokesman Don Sherry. Unbundledservice is to begin Nov. 1, 2000. “We’re pleased with it. We thinkit represents a reasonable compromise, and it gives finality anddefinition to what part of the system is what and allows us toproceed with unbundling.”

A rate case is the next step, and one is scheduled for February.In July, ONG gathering and storage assets were removed from thecompany’s rate base, and in November ONG will begin buying gasbased on competitive bids.

The stipulated agreement was worked out among commission staff,the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office, Enogex Inc., Transok LLC,and ONG, Kansas Gas Service Co., and ONEOK Gas Transportation LLC,each a division of ONEOK Inc. The three commissioners votedunanimously.

“Today’s order is an historic step in providing gas utilityservices by redesigning the traditional monopoly to bring thebenefits of market competition to ratepayers,” said CommissionerBob Anthony.

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