Oklahoma Natural Gas, a division of ONEOK, Inc. (OKE), announced that it received approval from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to change its rates.
The corporation commission approved a settlement to allow an increase in base revenue of $54.5 million and set Oklahoma Natural's authorized return on equity at 10.5%. Several expenses that currently appear on customers' bills as separate line-item charges will be moved into base rates, effectively reducing the rate increase to a net amount of about $26 million.
The company estimates that a typical residential consumer may experience an increase of $3.95 per month from this rate case. However, declining natural gas costs potentially could offset the higher charges for delivery. Low-income customers will experience no increase.
As a result of the new rates, residential customers who use 50 dekatherms or more of natural gas per year will pay a fixed charge of $26.75 per month for Oklahoma Natural's delivery service, plus the cost of the natural gas, taxes and miscellaneous fees.
Customers using less than 50 dekatherms per year of natural gas will pay a fixed charge of $11.20 per month and $3.7323 per dekatherm for delivery, in addition to the cost of the gas, taxes and fees.
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