The Oklahoma Natural Gas Company will avoid $8.5 million in fines over a January natural gas pipeline explosion as part of a $1,010,000 agreement announced Wednesday before a Corporation Commission Administrative Law Judge.
Just as Judge Michael Porter opened the contempt hearing to receive evidence on three citations issued by the Corporation Commission, attorney Mark Willingham announced the settlement.
Patricia Franz, director of the Commission’s Transportation Division is the official who signed off on the citations that accused ONG of basic negligence in failing to resolve 8 pipeline leaks in an Oklahoma City residential neighborhood.
“The respondent has agreed this settlement amount will not be paid by its ratepayers,” she testified in brief remarks. “They have agreed there will be no attempt to recover that money through any future ratemaking action here at the commission.”
As part of the agreement, ONG also agreed to carry out an immediate survey of similar pipelines and report the findings to the Commission and make remediation.
“We just want to say today, first and foremost, we are appreciative of this collaboration that came to this agreement,” said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for ONG. “We also really want to stress to our customers, safety is our top priority and we apologize for this incident. We have taken responsibility for what happened in January.”
Ballard commented after the hearing and told reporters the system review will be completed by the end of the year on all pipelines similar to the one that exploded, badly damaging several homes and injuring three persons.
“We want to reinforce to our customers, the system is safe and safety is our top priority.”
The judge recommended the agreement be approved by the Commission. No date for a vote by the full commission has been set.
Listen to Cherokee Ballard’s statement on ONG settlement agreement.