We take our responsibility for environmental stewardship seriously and have taken steps to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment.

We understand that our shareholders expect us to deliver returns on their investments, but never at the expense of the safety of our employees or unreasonable impacts on the environment.

We spend a good deal of time and money to improve our operational and environmental performance, which, in turn, results in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Our annual direct greenhouse gas emissions for ONEOK and ONEOK Partners are currently estimated to be less than 6 million metric tons of CO2e*, and our annual "lost and unaccounted for" natural gas is less than 1 percent of throughput. Our performance in greenhouse gas emissions and "lost and unaccounted for" gas is not by accident. It is the result of consistently focusing on operational best practices, such as asset integrity, improvements in measurement, fuel usage and operational optimization.

We also participate in the processing, transmission and distribution sectors of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Natural Gas STAR Program to voluntarily reduce methane emissions. This program facilitates the sharing of best practices among industry companies and allows participants to report their reductions in methane emissions.

The company also seeks to protect the environment and reduce emissions from using compressed natural gas vehicles in our fleet, subsidizing public transportation on ozone-alert days and installing high-efficiency lighting and heating-and-cooling systems in our buildings.

We will continue to focus on methane loss reductions through the expanded implementation of these best practices across our operations and will continue to analyze other options to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

* Carbon Dioxide Equivalents (CO2e) includes what are expected to be reportable sources of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions from operations, fuel burning equipment and vehicle emissions.

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