In separate orders involving Columbia Gulf Transmission and Tennessee Gas Pipeline, FERC signaled Thursday that it will not tolerate the practice of pipelines using notices on web sites to impose more restrictive quality limits for natural gas accepted into their systems.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders directed both Columbia Gulf and Tennessee to revise their existing tariff provisions, which the agency said give them “very broad authority” to adopt additional restrictions on gas quality for long periods of time.

The tariff provisions provide the pipelines with “too much discretion, and are unjust and unreasonable,” a staff member told the full Commission during the agency’s regular meeting Thursday [RP04-98, RP04-99].

If the pipelines want to set specific levels for Btu content or hydrocarbon dewpoint, FERC said they must provide this information in their tariffs, along with protections for their shippers.

The Commission orders were in response to two complaints filed by a group of producers, who claimed that Columbia Gulf and Tennessee had improperly set more restrictive gas quality standards for shippers by posting notices on their web sites. They accused the pipelines of bypassing FERC regulations and the Natural Gas Act (NGA), which require pipes to get FERC approval before making changes to the gas quality specifications in their tariffs.

The producers got the relief they were seeking from the Commission. But, at the same time, neither Columbia Gulf nor Tennessee were found to be in violation of their existing tariffs because of the wide authority FERC had given them to adjust their gas quality standards, according to the order.

Earlier this month, FERC ordered both Trunkline Gas and ANR Pipeline to cease the practice of using “critical notices” and operational flow orders (OFOs) to set stricter quality standards for gas accepted into their systems. In those cases as well, producers filed complaints accusing the pipelines of circumventing FERC and NGA regulations (see Daily GPI, Jan. 5).

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