(Source: Tulsa World)By Rod Walton, Tulsa World, Okla.
Jan. 9--The harsh winter is pushing natural gas into pipelines and homes at historic volumes, industry officials said Friday.

The 10,500-mile Transco Pipeline, owned by Tulsa-based Williams Cos. Inc., hit a peak daily delivery record of 9.25 million deka- therms on Sunday, according to reports. The transport mark was 200,000 dekatherms higher than the previous Transco high point on Feb. 5, 2009.

"This was a tremendous team effort," said Phil Wright, president of Williams' natural gas pipeline segment. Transco, which stretches from New York to the Gulf Coast, gives a vivid example of how the cold has sparked natural gas demand. The evidencestretches from producers to distributors and utility companies.

Oklahoma Natural Gas Co., as expected, topped its biggest day in at least a decade Thursday when customers used about 1.49 billion cubic feet. Winter use typically is in the 700 million cubic-foot range, but ONG has moved no less than 1 billion every day since the blizzard hit on Christmas Eve.

The wind-chill factor offers a financial windfall for natural gas companies of every stream. Weather impact and reduced inventories pushed futures prices to $5.75 per thousand cubic feet Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

AEP-PSO, which provides power to Tulsa and much of northeastern Oklahoma, also set an unofficial winter record Thursday. Electricity demand peaked at about 2,860 megawatts, surpassing the 2,849 megawatts delivered Dec. 9, 2005.

American Electric Power-Public Service

Company of Oklahoma generates nearly half of its power from gas-fired turbines.

Rod Walton 581-8457 rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

-----