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Oneok (OKE) Risk Analysis
Risk Overview Q2, 2026
Source: the company's latest filing for the period ended Jun 30, 2026, filed Aug 04, 2026
Risk Change Over Time
- Debt & Financing - Risk 1Changes in interest rates could affect adversely affect our business.
We use both fixed and variable rate debt, and we are exposed to market risk due to the floating interest rates on our short-term borrowings. Our results of operations, financial position and cash flows could be affected adversely by significant fluctuations in interest rates.
- Debt & Financing - Risk 2Any reduction in our credit ratings could affect adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows.
Our long-term debt has been assigned an investment-grade credit rating of "Baa2" by Moody's and "BBB" by both S&P and Fitch. Our commercial paper program has been assigned an investment-grade credit rating of Prime-2, A-2 and F2 by Moody's, S&P and Fitch, respectively. We cannot provide assurance that any of our current ratings will remain in effect for any given period of time or that a rating will not be lowered or withdrawn entirely by these credit rating agencies. If these agencies were to downgrade our long-term debt or our commercial paper rating, particularly below investment grade, our borrowing costs could increase, which would adversely affect our financial results, and our potential pool of investors and funding sources could decrease. Ratings from these agencies are not recommendations to buy, sell or hold our securities. Each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating.
- Debt & Financing - Risk 3An event of default may require us to offer to repurchase or repay certain of our and ONEOK Partners' senior notes or may impair our ability to access capital.
The indentures governing certain of our and ONEOK Partners' senior notes include an event of default upon the acceleration of other indebtedness of $15 million or more for certain of our senior notes or $100 million or more for certain of our and ONEOK Partners' senior notes. Such events of default would entitle the trustee or the holders of 25% in aggregate principal amount of our and ONEOK Partners' outstanding senior notes to declare those senior notes immediately due and payable in full. We may not have sufficient cash on hand to repurchase and repay any accelerated senior notes, which may cause us to borrow funds under our credit facility or seek alternative financing sources to finance the repurchases and repayment. We could also face difficulties accessing capital or our borrowing costs could increase, impacting our ability to obtain financing for acquisitions or capital expenditures, to refinance indebtedness and to fulfill our debt obligations.
- Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 4Mergers and Mergers, acquisitions and other significant transactions that appear to be accretive may nevertheless reduce our cash from operations on a per-share basis.
Any merger, acquisition or other significant transactions involves potential risks that may include, among other things: - inaccurate assumptions about volumes, revenues and costs, including potential synergies;- an inability to integrate successfully the businesses we acquire;- decrease in our liquidity as a result of our using a significant portion of our available cash or borrowing capacity to finance the acquisition;- a significant increase in our interest expense and/or financial leverage if we incur additional debt to finance the acquisition;- the assumption of unknown liabilities for which we are not indemnified, our indemnity is inadequate or our insurance policies may exclude from coverage;- an inability to hire, train or retain qualified personnel to manage and operate the acquired business and assets;- limitations on rights to indemnity from the seller;- inaccurate assumptions about the overall costs of equity or debt;- the diversion of management's and employees' attention from other business concerns;- unforeseen difficulties operating in new product areas or new geographic areas;- increased regulatory burdens; and - customer or key employee losses at an acquired business. If we consummate any future mergers or acquisitions, our capitalization and results of operations may change significantly, and investors will not have the opportunity to evaluate the economic, financial and other relevant information that we will consider in determining the application of our resources to future acquisitions.
- Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 5Our future results following the closing of the Recent Acquisitions and any potential future transactions will suffer if we do not effectively manage our expanded operations.
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we completed the EnLink Acquisition, the Delaware Basin JV Acquisition and the BridgeTex Additional Interest Acquisition. As a result, the size of our business has increased and will increase further if we complete future acquisitions. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to manage this expanded business, which may pose challenges for management, including challenges related to the management and monitoring of new operations and associated increased costs and complexity. We may also face increased scrutiny from governmental authorities and/or other third parties as a result of the increase in the size of our business. There can be no assurances that we will be successful or that we will realize the expected operating efficiencies, cost savings, revenue enhancements or other benefits anticipated from these acquisitions and any potential future acquisitions.
Risk Highlights Q2, 2026
Risk Word Cloud
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 15
- Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1Holders of our common stock may receive dividends that vary from anticipated amounts, or no dividends at all.
We may not have sufficient cash each quarter to pay dividends or maintain current or expected levels of dividends. The actual amount of cash we pay in the form of dividends may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and will depend on various factors, some of which are beyond our control, including our working capital needs, our ability to borrow, the restrictions contained in our indentures and credit facility, our debt-service requirements and the cost of acquisitions, if any. A failure either to pay dividends or to pay dividends at expected levels could result in a loss of investor confidence, reputational damage and a decrease in the value of our stock price.
- Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2An impairment of goodwill, long-lived assets, including intangible assets, and equity-method investments could reduce our earnings.
Goodwill is recorded when the purchase price of a business exceeds the fair market value of the tangible and separately measurable intangible net assets. GAAP requires us to test goodwill for impairment on an annual basis or when events or circumstances occur indicating that goodwill might be impaired. Long-lived assets, including intangible assets with finite useful lives, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. For the investments we account for under the equity method, the impairment test considers whether the fair value of the equity investment as a whole, not the underlying net assets, has declined and whether that decline is other than temporary. For example, if a low commodity price environment persisted for a prolonged period, it could result in lower volumes delivered to our systems and impairments of our assets or equity-method investments. If we determine that an impairment is indicated, we would be required to take an immediate noncash charge to earnings with a correlative effect on equity and balance sheet leverage as measured by consolidated debt to total capitalization. For further discussion of impairments of long-lived assets, goodwill and equity-method investments, see Note A of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report.
- Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to report accurately our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential holders of our equity and debt securities could lose confidence in our financial reporting.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports, prevent fraud and operate successfully as a public company. We cannot be certain that our efforts to maintain our internal controls will be successful, that we will be able to maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future or that we will be able to continue to comply with our obligations under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Any failure to maintain effective internal controls, or difficulties encountered in implementing or improving our internal controls, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our equity, our access to capital markets and the cost of capital.
See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.