Oneok facts for kids
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| Public | |
| Traded as |
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| Industry | Natural gas utility |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Key people
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| Products | Natural Gas |
| Revenue |  US$17.7 billion (2023) |
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Operating income
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 US$4.07 billion (2023) |
| US$2.66 billion (2023) |
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| Total assets | US$44.3 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$16.5 billion (2023) |
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Number of employees
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4,775 (2023) |
| Subsidiaries |
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Oneok, Inc. is an American company that mainly works with natural gas. Its main office is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oneok is a very large company, so big that it's listed on the Fortune 500 and S&P 500. These lists include some of the biggest and most important companies in the United States.
Oneok started in 1906 as the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company. It changed its name to Oneok in 1980. The company also owns big systems for natural gas liquids (NGL). They got these systems in 2005 when they bought parts of Koch Industries' natural gas businesses.
Oneok's Energy Services group helps sell natural gas and related services across the U.S. This part of the company makes most of its money from physically moving and selling gas. They also let customers choose their gas provider in states like Nebraska and Wyoming.
The company's first main office was in an Art Deco style building in Tulsa, built in 1928. In 1982, Oneok decided to move to a new, taller building. They bought a building that was still being built and finished it in 1984. This new building is made of black granite and glass. In 2009, Oneok helped pay for Oneok Field, a new baseball stadium in downtown Tulsa. It is home to the Tulsa Drillers minor league baseball team.
History of Oneok
The Oklahoma Natural Gas Company (ONG) was started in 1906. Two lawyers, Dennis T. Flynn and Charles B. Ames, founded it. They wanted to use the natural gas that was found when people were looking for oil in northern Oklahoma. ONG officially became a company on October 9, 1906.
Flynn was the president and Ames was the secretary. They also worked with H. M. Byllesby to create the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E). This company brought natural gas from the Cleveland Oil Field to Oklahoma City. They used the gas to make electricity.
Soon, Glenn T. Braden and Theodore N. Barnsdall joined ONG. They were already experienced in the oil business. Together, they owned another company called Osage and Oklahoma Gas Company. ONG built a pipeline to carry natural gas from the Osage fields to Oklahoma City. This pipeline started working on December 28, 1907. ONG then made the pipeline longer, reaching Guthrie and Shawnee. In 1910, they also built the state's first gas pipeline compressor station. Glenn T. Braden became the company's president after Flynn.
ONG kept building pipelines all over Oklahoma. By the time Braden retired in 1921, ONG had over 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of pipelines. They served more than 500,000 customers in 48 of Oklahoma's 77 counties. In 1928, they built their well-known main office building in Tulsa. The company changed its structure a few times over the years.
In December 1980, the Oklahoma Natural Gas board decided to change the company's structure. They reorganized it into a holding company called Oneok Inc. This meant that Oklahoma Natural Gas became a main part of Oneok, with its office in Oklahoma City. The main Oneok company's office stayed in Tulsa.
In 1996, Oneok bought the natural gas operations of a Kansas utility company called Western Resources. They renamed these operations Kansas Gas Service. In 2003, Oneok bought the Texas properties of Southern Union Gas. This became another Oneok company called Texas Gas Service.
In 2007, Fortune magazine, a well-known business magazine, called Oneok the most admired company in the energy industry. This showed how well-regarded the company was.
In February 2014, Oneok made a big change. They separated their natural gas distribution companies into a new, independent company called ONE Gas. These distribution companies included Oklahoma Natural Gas, Kansas Gas Service, and Texas Gas Services. This meant that the original core business of Oklahoma Natural Gas became its own separate company.
For many years until 2017, Oneok was set up as an MLP (Master Limited Partnership). This is a special type of business structure. In 2017, it changed to a regular company, known as a C-corporation. This change affects how the company reports its earnings to its stockholders each year.
In May 2023, Oneok agreed to buy Magellan Midstream Partners. This was a very large deal, worth about $18.8 billion, including debt. The purchase was completed in September 2023.
