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FERC Clarifies Privileged Treatment of OCSLA Reports
In an order on clarification, FERC said that its recent decision denying privileged treatment for information submitted under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) extended to all offshore transportation providers, as well as to most types of information.
Although the Producer Coalition’s challenge of requests for privileged treatment was limited to information submitted by eight offshore transportation providers, the Commission clarified that its mid-September order rejecting the providers’ requests was generic in scope [RM99-5-004].
“…[W]e examined not only requests for confidentiality by the parties named in the Producer Coalition’s…filing, but all requests for confidentiality by persons filing reports” under Orders 639 and 639-A, which require operators of offshore natural gas pipelines to submit information on their rates, terms and conditions of service, corporate affiliation, and details of their transportation system to FERC for review.
In addition, the Commission generally held that all information contained in OCSLA reports was publicly available. “…[W]e found no reason to distinguish between confidentiality requests restricted to information regarding PHAs [production-handling agreements] and requests that covered other offshore activities. All requests received and considered presented insufficient grounds to support continued confidentiality in light of the OCSLA’s open-access requirements.”
In its mid-September order, the Commission rejected the requests of major offshore transportation providers because they made “broad requests for confidentiality” based on claims that disclosure of their information would “compromise their competitive standing and result in irreparable economic harm.” FERC left open the door, however, for “more limited and better justified confidentiality requests [to] be granted,” it said in its latest order.
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