Billions were paid out to natural gas companies in the February 2021 storm. These made the most


Natural gas-fired generators at Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.'s Mustang Energy Center in west Oklahoma City supply power to the grid during last year's winter storm.

Frustrated customers potentially on the hook for billions of dollars their utility providers spent during last year's February winter storm are learning more about what companies might have benefitted from spiking wholesale electricity and natural gas prices during the event.

The Public Utility Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission on Thursday released data typically shielded from public view that was provided by publicly regulated utilities seeking to recover their costs to keep providing electricity and natural gas services to customers during the storm.

The information identifies the vendors the utilities did business with between Feb. 7 and Feb. 21 to get fuel, surplus electricity and related services during the storm.

Here's what we know so far from the data provided. This is a developing story.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric
Of nearly 20 natural gas vendors, the three that were paid most by Oklahoma Gas and Electric as it obtained fuel to power its generators were:

Tenaska Marketing Ventures — $125,428,028.

Koch Energy Services, LLC — $112,608,142.

Mercuria — $69,957,142.

The pipeline company OG&E paid the most to for natural gas transportation services during the storm — $1,673,610 — was Enable Midstream Partners (which it co-owned at the time).

Public Service Co. of Oklahoma
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma's biggest storm-related cost — $416,686,804 — was for wholesale electricity it purchased from the Southwest Power Pool's grid to meet increased demands for power.

It paid Tenaska Marketing Ventures $72,393,312 for natural gas.

It paid Enable Oklahoma Intrastate Transmission $14,288,303 for natural gas balancing services during the storm.

Oklahoma Natural Gas
The three largest fuel suppliers Oklahoma Natural Gas bought from during the storm were:

NextEra — $411,075,931

SW Energy — $297,161,143

Macquarie — $118,720,193.

Summit Utilities Oklahoma Inc.
The three largest fuel suppliers Summit (formerly CenterPoint Energy) bought from during the storm were:

SES Energy Services — $38,880,323.27

Continental Resources — $18,873,500

SW Energy — $12,413,740.72.

Other utilities to report
The Empire District of Liberty Utilities, Arkansas Oklahoma Gas, the Fort Cobb Fuel Authority, Panhandle Natural Gas and Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative also fulfilled the agency's data request.

The agency will post the information from each regulated utility on its website, https://oklahoma.gov/occ.html.

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