Investments paying off for ONEOK Partners

“These projects significantly expanded our natural gas and natural gas liquids businesses and created volume growth in these areas that has resulted in increased earnings for the partnership and ONEOK by virtue of its general partnership interest and 42.8 percent ownership,” CEO John W. Gibson said.

ONEOK Partners ranked No. 8 on this year's Oklahoma Inc. list, with earnings per share up 44 percent over the previous year.

Gibson said ONEOK Partners, a master limited partnership subsidiary of ONEOK Inc., can continue to grow.

“In keeping with our recent history of growing from within, we've already announced plans to invest approximately $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion for additional growth projects in our natural gas gathering and processing and natural gas liquids business segments between now and 2014,” he said.

ONEOK Partners plans to spend up to $1.8 billion on projects in North Dakota's Bakken Shale, $1.2 billion for natural gas liquids infrastructure in the Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast regions and $295 million for projects in Oklahoma's Cana-Woodford and Granite Wash areas.