Last September OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE:OGE) and Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ETP) announced a joint venture to transport natural gas from Texas and Oklahoma to California and the northeastern US. It was an ambitious project and would have been a significant player in the gas transportation space.

Alas, the companies have announced that the deal is dead. OGE’s chairman, CEO, and president said that “conditions in the financial markets are such that any partnership completed in the near term would not likely be economically beneficial to OGE.” ETP’s chairman and CEO echoed that sentiment, “We regret that the capital markets have prevented us from accomplishing our plans to combine these businesses in a strategic joint venture.”

If two major energy companies can’t line up the financing they need to form a regulated return business, this is not good news for any company.

Paul Ausick