In October of 1998, Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. (LRE) acquired National Gas & Oil Company and its subsidiaries, National Gas & Oil Corp., Producers Gas Sales, NGO Development Corp., and NGO Propane. The Energy Cooperative is the trade name used by LRE and its subsidiaries, which operate as separate corporations.

Why Were Cooperatives Formed?
By the mid 1930′s almost every urban area in the United States had electric service. In rural areas, only 10 percent of people enjoyed the convenience of electricity because investor-owned utilities could not cost justify building miles of line to serve only a few consumers. Today, Ohio’s electric cooperatives serve nearly 340,000 homes and businesses in Ohio and there are nearly 1,000 rural electric cooperatives across the nation serving 25 million consumer-members.

The Energy Cooperative Family

Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. (LRE)
LRE is a cooperative that distributes electricity to over 24,000 consumers in 9 counties. In 1936 a group of farmers in Licking and Knox counties decided to take advantage of a federal program offered by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and formed an electric Cooperative. LRE was organized in 1936 with the first office located in Newark, Ohio. At inception, 5 people were employed to service 410 members and 143 miles of electric line. The George Conrad Farm on Smoketown Road was the first energized. For 40 years, the office was located one mile south of Utica, Ohio on State Route 13 and was built in 1959. Since the acquisition of National Gas and their subsidiaries, LRE has moved their head-quarters back to Newark, Ohio.

National Gas & Oil Cooperative (National)
National is a retail natural gas distribution cooperative that has over 30,000 members in 10 counties. Industrial Gas Corporation was formed in 1941 and later became National Gas & Oil Corporation in 1946. This service is provided through a pipeline network consisting of 900 miles of distribution mains, 300 miles of gathering and 275 miles of distribution service lines. These pipeline systems have natural gas throughput volumes exceeding 9,000 MMcf per year. Natural gas is delivered to the pipeline system through NGO Transmission, Inc. and Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation. National also gathers local gas from approximately 300 local wells.

Producers Gas Sales (Producers)
Producers Gas Sales, Inc. (Producers) is a wholesale marketer of natural gas and serves high volume consumers. The natural gas service is backed by interstate supply, local production and on-system storage fields. The program is designed for businesses with both demonstrated volume consumption and credit worthiness. The program also provides companies the opportunity to take advantage of favorable market conditions, budget accurately and avoid extreme market fluctuation.

NGO Development Corp. (NGO) Through a series of acquisitions, the subsidiary NGO Development Corp. (NGO) was formed in 1991 for the purpose of securing local natural gas supply. Currently, NGO operates over 600 oil and gas wells that produce in excess of 2,000 MMcf annually. NGO participates in joint ventures, or drills on average 20 wells annually. These drilling programs include both shallow and more prolific deep horizons. NGO also operates over 500 miles of gathering pipelines to deliver it gas to markets in the Coshocton, Newark, Zanesville and Caldwell areas.

NGO Propane
NGO Propane is a propane distribution cooperative that servers over 4,000 consumers in 8 counties. In 1998, NGO Propane was formed and became one of the first metered propane services in Ohio, thus allowing the member to pay only for the propane consumed each month. NGO Propane continually follows propane pricing markets to secure pricing and supply for the heating season.

NGO Transmission, Inc. (NGOT)
The newest “Cooperative” in the Energy Cooperative Family is NGO Transmission, Inc. NGOT received a certificate of authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision on October 27, 2003, to become the State of Ohio’s newest gas transmission company. By segregating transmission and storage facilities, the FERC approved rate structure permits cost recovery from the proper customer group.

The primary mission of NGOT is to provide firm gas delivery service to retail consumers of National. A secondary mission is to facilitate the sale of gas supply to large-volume consumers through the marketing efforts of Producers and NGO Development. NGOT also creates transportation opportunities for other qualifing gas shippers within Ohio.

NGOT will operate over 171 miles of transmission pipelines and three gas storage fields. Initially, the staffing level will consist of eleven employees.

http://www.theenergycoop.com