Oklahoma Natural Gas history

In 1910 the company built the first compressor station constructed in the state.

In the midst of this economic boom Oklahoma Natural Gas Company became a lucrative target for a takeover and finally in July 1926 the company was purchased by the New York based investment banking firm White Weld and Company.

Phillips used ONG until it could complete its own pipeline to the Midwest and then, on October 15, 1927, sold it to the American Natural Gas Corporation, a holding company subsidiary of utility company financiers G. L. Ohrstrom and Company, Inc.

ONG's General Office Building in Tulsa was constructed in 1928.

On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and the company and Ohrstrom were plunged into turmoil along with the rest of American industry.

In October 1931, Deal resigned as president and was elected chair of the board of directors.

The 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act required another restructuring.

A return to normalcy began on June 1, 1936, when Joseph "Jos" Bowes gained the ONG presidency.

He was replaced by Executive Vice President C. C. "Charlie" Ingram, an engineer who had joined the company in 1940 as an engineer trainee following his graduation from the University of Oklahoma.

Following the war, ONG acquired distribution operations in the Oklahoma communities of Sand Springs, Crescent, Dover, Guthrie, Hennessey, and Kingfisher, bringing its 1950 customer total to 270,000.

Bowes reported to shareholders that 1954 had been the company's best financial year.

By its 1956 fiftieth anniversary ONG had six hundred employees in the state and maintained sixty-six hundred miles of pipelines, and served 329,000 customers.

In 1960, it acquired the Northern Oklahoma Gas Company, the Standard Gas Company, and the State Fuel Supply Company, gaining distribution operations in Ponca City, Newkirk, Perry, Madill, Tishomingo, Anadarko, Wewoka, and Lindsey. It expanded its Garvin County gasoline plant, and in 1959 bought an interest in the Laverne gas processing plant in northwestern Oklahoma.

In 1960, it acquired the Northern Oklahoma Gas Company, the Standard Gas Company, and the State Fuel Supply Company, gaining distribution operations in Ponca City, Newkirk, Perry, Madill, Tishomingo, Anadarko, Wewoka, and Lindsey.

In 1964, H. A. "Tex" Eddins replaced Bowes as chair of the board.

In 1965, he acquired Zenith Natural Gas Company and converted Zenith's Kansas properties into a second subsidiary.

Tragically, Eddins died suddenly on April 26, 1966, while attending an employee service awards meeting.

In 1968, he formed Thermal Systems, Inc., which built central cooling and heating plants in Tulsa and Oklahoma City and, eventually, a cold storage warehouse.

In 1970, with gas supply as a primary concern, Ingram reorganized ONG's operating department, established a gas supply department, and formed Oklahoma Natural Development Corporation.

In 1972, they formed ONG Exploration Company and encouraged customers to conserve.

He incorporated ONG of Norway, Inc., to bid on oil and gas leases in the North Sea, and by 1974 was spending a yearly $9 million for exploration and production, including a $3 million wildcat program.

Within ONEOK's non-utility division, the ONEOK Energy Companies, ONEOK Exploration Company explored for oil and natural gas, while Smart Drilling Company, acquired in 1979, was a contract-drilling operation.

In 1980 the board of directors held a vote to change the name of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company to ONEOK, Inc.

To make matters worse, even though executives did what they could to keep industrial deliveries high by cutting prices to ONG's five fertilizer plant customers to keep them in business, deliveries continued to fall from 1982's 281 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 242 bcf.

A light at the end of the tunnel began to appear in 1989, when earnings per share rose 71 percent, dividends were restored, and exploration and production activities became profitable for the first time in five years.

In 1990, Standard and Poors and Duff and Phelps upgraded ONEOK's debt to A- from BBB+.

By 1997 the company owned 18,500 miles of pipeline, served three-quarters of a million customers, and employed more than twelve hundred.

ONEOK separated its natural gas distribution business in 2014 to create ONE Gas, Inc.