The Oklahoma Corporation Commission will hold a contempt hearing Wednesday in its pipeline explosion case against Oklahoma Natural Gas company.
The hearing stems from the state investigation into the Jan. 2 explosion in a homes in an Oklahoma City residential neighborhood. Numerous other homes were badly damaged and 3 residents injured in the blast.
ONG faces $8.5 million in fines in the case because the firm is accused of ignoring leaks in its pipelines. The Corporation Commission recently filed a complaint against the utility, (see OKEnergyToday–Sept. 26)
The company was hit with three citations including one that accused it of failing “to perform or document performance of continued surveillance when responding to eight leak failures.” A second complaint said the company failed to investigate the eight leak failures while the third complaint said the company “failed to properly perform when responding to a customer-reported gas leak the day before the explosion.”