FERC in separate orders Tuesday directed Columbia Gulf Transmission and Tennessee Gas Pipeline to submit revised tariff filings that comply with the agency’s new policy statement on natural gas quality issues that was issued in June. The orders also called for technical conferences to be held to discuss the proposed changes.

In January 2004, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered both Columbia Gulf and Tennessee to revise their existing tariff provisions, which the agency said at the time gave them “very broad authority” to adopt additional restrictions on gas quality for long periods of time (see Daily GPI, Jan. 23, 2004). The tariff provisions provided the pipes with “too much discretion, and [were] unjust and unreasonable,” staff said.

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 websites. They accused the pipelines of bypassing FERC regulations and the Natural Gas Act.

In March 2004, Columbia Gulf and Tennessee complied with FERC’s request by proposing revisions of their gas quality standards. But instead of immediately acting on them, the Commission held the pipelines’ proposals in abeyance because it had already begun to address gas quality issues on an industrywide level.

That process culminated last month when FERC adopted a policy statement that identified five principles for addressing disputes involving gas quality issues on a case-by-case basis (see Daily GPI, June 16). The Commission has now called on Columbia Gulf and Tennessee to update their March 2004 compliance filings to meet the requirements of the new policy statement.

“Columbia Gulf should include in its revised compliance filing all the technical, engineering and operational information upon which it relies to support each of its proposed gas quality standards,” said the order [RP04-98-001]. In addition, the Commission called on Columbia Gulf to clarify its proposal for a hydrocarbon dew point (HDP) level on its system of “not greater than 15 Fahrenheit at any operating pressure.” Specifically, the agency wants to know if Columbia’s proposal is equivalent to a 15 Fahrenheit cricondentherm HDP (CHDP) standard, and, if not, how it differs from the CHDP method.

Columbia Gulf and Tennessee are seeking to establish stricter HDP limits to prevent the fallout of liquids from gas streams that could affect the operational capability of their pipeline systems.

The agency order also pointed out that “there [was] no statement in Columbia Gulf’s proposal concerning existing or proposed gas quality specifications for gas that Columbia Gulf delivers to its customers.” It directed the pipeline to correct this oversight.

Likewise, in light of the new policy statement, FERC asked for more information on Tennessee’s proposal to establish a HDP limit of 15 Fahrenheit for natural gas entering its system [RP04-99-001]. Both pipelines have 60 days to respond to the agency’s orders.

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