Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Arkla Not Under Investigation Says AG's Office

Rumors have been circulating about Reliant Energy/Arkla being investigated for price gouging.

These rumors have no basis in fact.

According to Michael Teague, with the Arkansas Attorney General's Office, utility companies are a regulated industry and, thereby, exempt from the price gouging law.

However, he said Arkla is being investigated to see if the company has made excessive profits the last three or four months.

Arkla, he said, claims to be passing its costs on dollar-for-dollar from its suppliers and hasn't raised its distribution costs.

The Attorney General's Office will be looking into this and make sure there was no rate increase.

This, Teague said, is being done to protect residential customers and businesses.

Margaret Preston, spokesman for Arkla, said the company earns its profits from its distribution rate, which has been 18 cents a cubic foot since July 1985.

She said many customers may not realize this has been the coldest winter Arkansas has had in years, with the average temperature in January being 31 degrees.

"It takes more to keep a house at 68 degrees when it's 31 degrees outside than when it's 44 degrees outside," she said.

As far as the price of gas, Arkla simply passes the increase on to the customers at the same rate the company pays for it from the suppliers.

Arkla purchases natural gas from a number of different suppliers, with the list changing constantly depending on where it can get the best deal.

Some of the suppliers are: Amoco Energy Trading Corporation; Anadarko Trading Company; Aquila Energy Marketing; Aurora Natural Gas; Barrett Resources Corporation; Bayou South Gathering Company; Blue Stars Resources, Inc.; Burlington Resources Oil/Gas; Chesapeake Energy Marketing, Inc.; Cibola Energy Services Corp.; Cinergy Marketing and Trading, LLC; Cokinos Natural Gas Co.; Coral Energy Resources, L.P.; Cross Timbers Energy Services, Inc.; Duke Energy Trading and Marketing; Dynegy, Inc.; E prime, Inc.; Eagle Gas Marketing; El Paso Energy Marketing Co.; El Paso Field Services; and Enron Capital and Trade Resource.

Other suppliers are: Entex Gas Marketing; Exxon Company USA; Freedom Energy, Inc.; H&N Gas LTD; Helmerich & Payne; Highland Energy Co.; Mitchell Energy Corp.; Midcon Gas Services Corp.; Murphy Oil USA, Inc.; Natural Gas Trading Corp.; OG&E Energy Resources; PanCanadian Energy Services; PG&E Energy Trading Corp.; Phoenix Gas Pipeline Co.; and Pioneer Energy Marketing Co.

Still other companies Arkla buys natural gas from are: Rally Gas Marketing; Reliant Energy Resources; Shamrock Energy Corp.; Southern Company Energy Marketing; Southwestern Energy Services Co.; Superior Natural Gas Corp.;Tenaska Marketing Ventures; Tejas Gas; Texaco Gas Marketing; Texas Energy Transfer Co.; Texla Energy Management; Total Fina Elf Gas and Power North America; TPC Corp.; Trebor Energy Resources; Unimark LLC; US Gas Services LLC; Vernon E. Faulconer, Inc.; Webb Energy Resources; Western Gas Co.; and Williams Energy Services Co.

These, though, are not the only companies Arkla buys natural gas from, Preston said.