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 500,000 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:
In October of 1998, Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. acquired National Gas & Oil Company and its subsidiaries, National Gas & Oil Corp., Producers Gas Sales, NGO Development Corp., NGO Transmission, Inc., and NGO Propane. The Energy Cooperative is the trade name used by LRE and its subsidiaries, which operate as separate corporations.

Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. (LRE):
LRE is a cooperative that distributes electricity to over 25,000 consumers in 9 counties in Central Ohio. 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. LRE recently added 270 new services to its system. LRE owns, operates, and maintains 32 miles of transmission line, 3,072 miles of distribution lines, 19 substations, and three switching stations.

National Gas & Oil Cooperative (National):
The Newark Consumers Gas Company was formed in 1912 and later became National Gas & Oil Corporation in 1946. National is now a natural gas distribution cooperative with over 33,000 members in 10 counties. This service is provided through a pipeline network consisting of over 1,000 miles of distribution, 10 miles of transmission and 10 miles of gathering lines. These pipeline systems have natural gas throughput volumes exceeding 8,000 MMcf per year. Natural gas is delivered to the pipeline system through NGO Transmission, Inc. and Columbia Pipeline Group. National also gathers local gas from approximately 300 local wells.

Producers Gas Sales (Producers):
Producers operates as an affiliated on-system marketing company for large commercial and industrial consumers. Producers Gas Sales arranges for acquisition and transportation of natural gas through the pipeline system to large consumers. The volume of gas transported to large commercial and industrial consumers represents over half of the total gas sold or transported on the transmission and distribution systems.

NGO Development Corp. (NGO):
NGO was formed in 1991 for the purpose of securing local natural gas supply. NGO operates over 600 oil and gas wells that produce in excess of 2,000 MMcf annually. NGO participates in joint ventures and drills up to 20 wells each year. These drilling programs include both shallow and more prolific deep horizons. NGO also operates over 500 miles of gathering pipelines to deliver 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):
NGOT operates over 171 miles of transmission pipelines and three gas storage fields. 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 qualifying gas shippers within Ohio.