Oneok earnings up 42 percent

<p align="justify"> (Tulsa-AP) -- The parent company of Oklahoma Natural Gas is reporting a 42 percent increase in earnings for fiscal year 2000.<br><p align="justify">Officials with Oneok say two acquisitions,

Tuesday, February 20th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Tulsa-AP) -- The parent company of Oklahoma Natural Gas is reporting a 42 percent increase in earnings for fiscal year 2000.

Officials with Oneok say two acquisitions, worth $850 million, are paying off for the company's shareholders. The company purchased natural gas gathering, processing, transmission and storage assets, as well as a natural gas marketing and trading operation.

The officials say the high price of natural gas helped the gathering and processing operation, but had an "unfavorable impact" on marketing.

Oneok is also the parent company of Kansas Gas Service and has nearly 1.5 million gas customers in Oklahoma and Kansas.