Hutchinson ? ONEOK Inc., which is the subject of a class-action lawsuit stemming from destructive gas explosions here, has asked that the trial be moved out of Reno County.

“It’s hardly an epiphany to anyone in this courtroom, but it’s impossible to impanel a jury that doesn’t have chips in the game here,” said Charles Lee, attorney for ONEOK, the state’s largest retail gas supplier.

Lee also asked District Judge Richard Rome for a delay in the Feb. 17 trial, in which Reno County property owners and business owners are seeking damages from the explosions.

Rome approved the request for a delay, but declined to rule immediately on the change-of-venue request.

Rome considered the requests Friday during a hearing. Attorneys representing Reno County businesses and property owners also asked the judge to let the trial jury decide whether to award punitive damages in the case.

Rome said he would rule later on allowing the jury to decide punitive damages.

The members of the class-action lawsuit already are seeking compensation from ONEOK Inc. and several affiliated gas businesses for property value and business losses after the gas explosions.

Gas erupting from abandoned salt brine wells exploded and destroyed two downtown Hutchinson businesses on Jan. 17, 2001, and a mobile home the next day. The mobile home’s occupants, John and Mary Ann Hahn, later died from their injuries.

State investigators and a consultant hired by the city of Hutchinson concluded that high-pressure gas leaking from a damaged pipe in the Yaggy gas storage field northwest of Hutchinson traveled seven miles underground before erupting in the city.

But on Friday, ONEOK attorney Lynn Hursh said a consultant the company hired to investigate the cause of the crisis would describe a new theory about the leak.

Hursh said the consultant concluded gas that suddenly escaped through a hole in the casing pipe at gas storage well S-1 caused a “pressure pulse” into adjacent rock.

That pulse disturbed pre-existing pockets of water and gas, causing naturally occurring gas to erupt through abandoned brine wells.