ONEOK

On October 12, 1906, Dennis T. Flynn and C. B. Ames, with backers including Theodore N. Barnsdall, formed Oklahoma Natural Gas Company (ONG) to pipe natural gas.⁠[1]

In 1954 ONG’s common stock was accepted for listing on the New York Stock Exchange.⁠[2]

In 1980 shareholders approved the creation of ONEOK, Inc.⁠[2]

In 1987 a jury awarded Forest Oil $50 million in a take-or-pay suit. Banks then withdrew an $85 million credit line, ONEOK’s debt was downgraded, and the company appealed.⁠[1]

In 1997 ONEOK completed the acquisition of Western Resources’ natural gas assets. It bought midstream assets from Dynegy for $308 million in 2000, Northern Plains Natural Gas Company in 2004, and natural gas liquids pipelines and processing plants from Koch Industries in 2005.⁠[2]

On March 4, 2010, Standard & Poor’s announced that ONEOK would replace Black & Decker in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry, effective March 12.⁠[3]

ONEOK spun off its natural gas distribution business as ONE Gas, Inc., distributing one share for every four ONEOK shares after the close on January 31, 2014. ONE Gas began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 3. John W. Gibson retired as CEO to become non-executive chairman, and Terry K. Spencer succeeded him.⁠[4]

On June 30, 2017, ONEOK acquired all outstanding common units of ONEOK Partners at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.985 of a share per unit, issuing 168.9 million shares to third-party unitholders.⁠[5]

On May 25, 2021, ONEOK announced the retirement of Terry K. Spencer, president and CEO since January 30, 2014. Pierce H. Norton II, president and CEO of ONE Gas, succeeded him and joined the board on June 28. Norton had joined ONEOK in 2004 and had served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of ONEOK and ONEOK Partners.⁠[6]

On July 9, 2022, a fire occurred at ONEOK’s 210,000-barrel-per-day natural gas liquids fractionation facility in Medford, Oklahoma. All personnel were safe, local residents were temporarily evacuated as a precaution, and the facility was no longer operational.⁠[7]

On January 9, 2023, ONEOK agreed with its insurers on total payments of $930 million for the incident, $100 million of which had already been received. It planned a new 125,000-barrel-per-day fractionator, MB-6, at Mont Belvieu, Texas, at a cost of about $550 million.⁠[8]

In May 2023 ONEOK agreed to buy Magellan Midstream Partners for $25 in cash and 0.667 of an ONEOK share per Magellan common unit, a deal valued at about $18.8 billion including debt and a 22% premium to the May 12 close. The deal took ONEOK, focused on natural gas liquids and natural gas, into refined products and crude oil transportation.⁠[9]

ONEOK shareholders and Magellan unitholders approved the deal on September 21, 2023, and it closed on September 25, ending trading in Magellan units on the New York Stock Exchange. Magellan owned the country’s longest refined petroleum products pipeline system.⁠[10]

On August 28, 2024, ONEOK announced $5.9 billion of deals with Global Infrastructure Partners: $2.6 billion in cash for Medallion, the largest privately held crude gathering and transportation system in the Permian’s Midland Basin, about $3.0 billion for 43% of EnLink Midstream’s units at $14.90 each, and $300 million for EnLink’s managing member.⁠[11]

The EnLink controlling-interest purchase closed on October 15, 2024, and the Medallion acquisition on October 31, when ONEOK became Medallion’s general partner.⁠[12]

EnLink unitholders approved the deal on January 30, 2025. On January 31 ONEOK completed the purchase of the remaining public units at 0.1412 of an ONEOK share per EnLink common unit, and EnLink units stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange. EnLink’s assets span the Permian Basin, Louisiana, Oklahoma and North Texas and include CO2 transportation for carbon capture and sequestration.⁠[13]

In 2025 ONEOK had total revenues of $33,629 million ($21,698 million in 2024) and net income attributable to ONEOK of $3.39 billion ($3.04 billion in 2024), or $5.42 per diluted share, with adjusted EBITDA of $8.02 billion. Cumulative acquisition synergies reached $475 million by year-end 2025.⁠[14]

ONEOK’s four segments are natural gas gathering and processing, natural gas liquids, natural gas pipelines, and refined products and crude, with a pipeline network of about 60,000 miles. It had 6,326 employees at December 31, 2025, and was rebuilding its Medford fractionator.⁠[12]

On August 30, 2026, ONEOK agreed to buy Brazos Midstream’s Midland Basin natural gas gathering and processing assets for $4.425 billion in cash, alongside a $9 billion minority equity investment by ApolloApolloApollo (Apollo Global Management, Inc.) is an asset management and retirement services group founded in 1990 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker APO. Its investment business spans credit, equity, and real assets; after its 2022 merger with Athene, asset management and retirement services were brought under the same listed parent company. At the end of June 2026, the group reported assets under management of about $1.047 trillion.Open the full entry-managed funds in a new holding company, ONEOK Holdings, L.L.C., with $5 billion of proceeds earmarked to cut debt.⁠[15]

The minority investment closed on September 10, 2026, giving Apollo a nonvoting Class B minority interest in the new holding company.⁠[16]

On October 27, 2026, ONEOK posted third-quarter net income attributable to the company of $1.35 billion, or $2.13 per diluted share, against $939 million a year earlier, including a one-time noncash income tax benefit of $336 million. It had completed the Brazos acquisition and raised its 2026 net income guidance to $4.09 billion–$4.27 billion.⁠[17]