ONG asking for rate hike of more than $99 million

Friday, July 1st 2005, 9:37 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is expected to make a decision in about six weeks on a request by Oklahoma Natural Gas to raise rates by nearly $99.5-million.

The commission has finished four days of hearings in which the commission's staff and the attorney general's office recommended the rate hike be about one-third the amount ONG wants.

ONG spokesman Don Sherry says the rate increase the company is asking for would cost the average customer about $10 a month. He says the money is needed to ONG recover more than $190-million the company spent to improve its pipelines.

The attorney general's staff says the rate increase should be limited to about $30-million while commission staff say the increase should be about $35-million.