OGE Energy Corp. supports Enable's actions to strengthen balance sheet and improve liquidity

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Apr 01, 2020, 20:59 ET

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) announced today its support of the recent decision by Enable Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: ENBL) to increase its annualized retained cash flow by approximately $450 million. OGE also reconfirmed the strength of its own balance sheet, credit metrics and liquidity position.

OGE expects distributions of approximately $18 million for the quarter and does not expect any changes to its operations, nor does the company foresee the need to access the equity markets as a result of this action.

"Today's action by Enable does not impact our growth plans at the utility," said OGE Energy Chairman, President and CEO Sean Trauschke. "We purposefully built our balance sheet to withstand the rigors of the marketplace, and it remains strong today."

OGE Energy is the parent company of OG&E, a regulated electric utility serving approximately 858,000 customers in Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. In addition, OGE holds 25.5 percent limited partner interest and 50 percent general partner interest in Enable Midstream Partners LP.

Some of the matters discussed in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in this document by the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "objective", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project" and similar expressions. Actual results may vary materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions, including the availability of credit, access to existing lines of credit, access to the commercial paper markets, actions of rating agencies and their impact on capital expenditures; the ability of the Company and its subsidiaries to access the capital markets and obtain financing on favorable terms as well as inflation rates and monetary fluctuations; the ability to obtain timely and sufficient rate relief to allow for recovery of items such as capital expenditures, fuel costs, operating costs, transmission costs and deferred expenditures; prices and availability of electricity, coal, natural gas and natural gas liquids ("NGLs"); the timing and extent of changes in commodity prices, particularly natural gas and NGLs, the competitive effects of the available pipeline capacity in the regions Enable serves, and the effects of geographic and seasonal commodity price differentials, including the effects of these circumstances on re-contracting available capacity on Enable's interstate pipelines; the timing and extent of changes in the supply of natural gas, particularly supplies available for gathering by Enable's gathering and processing business and transporting by Enable's interstate pipelines, including the impact of natural gas and NGLs prices on the level of drilling and production activities in the regions Enable serves; business conditions in the energy and natural gas midstream industries, including the demand for natural gas, NGLs, crude oil and midstream services; competitive factors including the extent and timing of the entry of additional competition in the markets served by the Company; the impact on demand for our services resulting from cost-competitive advances in technology, such as distributed electricity generation and customer energy efficiency programs; technological developments, changing markets and other factors that result in competitive disadvantages and create the potential for impairment of existing assets; factors affecting utility operations such as unusual weather conditions; catastrophic weather-related damage; unscheduled generation outages, unusual maintenance or repairs; unanticipated changes to fossil fuel, natural gas or coal supply costs or availability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems or other developments; environmental incidents; or electric transmission or gas pipeline system constraints; availability and prices of raw materials for current and future construction projects; the effect of retroactive pricing of transactions in the SPP markets or adjustments in market pricing mechanisms by the SPP; federal or state legislation and regulatory decisions and initiatives that affect cost and investment recovery, have an impact on rate structures or affect the speed and degree to which competition enters the Company's markets; environmental laws, safety laws or other regulations that may impact the cost of operations or restrict or change the way the Company operates its facilities; changes in accounting standards, rules or guidelines; the discontinuance of accounting principles for certain types of rate-regulated activities; the cost of protecting assets against, or damage due to, terrorism or cyberattacks and other catastrophic events; creditworthiness of suppliers, customers and other contractual parties; social attitudes regarding the utility, natural gas and power industries; identification of suitable investment opportunities to enhance shareholder returns and achieve long-term financial objectives through business acquisitions and divestitures; increased pension and healthcare costs; the impact of extraordinary external events, such as the current pandemic health event resulting from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and their collateral consequences, including extended disruption of economic activity in our markets; costs and other effects of legal and administrative proceedings, settlements, investigations, claims and matters; difficulty in making accurate assumptions and projections regarding future revenues and costs associated with the Company's equity investment in Enable that the Company does not control; and other risk factors listed in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those listed in Risk Factors in the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in the Company's Form 8-K filed on March 30, 2020.

SOURCE OGE Energy Corp.