FERC is proposing to survey up to 300 natural gas and power traders twice — this October and next March — to determine if they are following guidelines outlined in the Commission’s July policy statement on reporting price information on energy trades to industry publications. The Commission said the survey would determine whether “further steps” were required to ensure the accuracy, reliability and transparency of price indices (PL03-3).

The Commission said it needed to determine whether its Policy Statement on Natural Gas and Electric Indices “is having the desired effect of encouraging more voluntary reporting of energy trade data to support the formation of accurate, reliable and transparent prices for natural gas and electricity.”

In a Federal Register notice, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission indicated it wanted to survey producers, generators, marketers, industrial users and commercial customers that buy or sell “large quantities” of natural gas or electricity in the cash market. Companies that trade energy derivatives or financial instruments would not be included. The survey would consist of 20 questions that would include the elements of trades reported to publishers, whether a voluntary code of conduct had been adopted and whether some or all of the trades were reported.

The Commission has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to give an expedited go-ahead, approving the survey under the Paperwork Reduction Act, by Sept. 19. Public comments on whether and how the proposed survey should go forward are called for by Sept. 17. FERC wants to have the first survey results due on Oct. 1, 2003 and the second set of results due March 1, 2004 to see if there are any changes from the Oct. 1 survey.

The Commission approved voluntary guidelines in July in an attempt to bolster the market’s private and confidential price reporting and index-setting system for reporting gas transactions to index developers (see NGI, July 28). Chairman Pat Wood urged industry to “get back in the reporting business so we get more of the volumes that are actually being transacted reported to existing price collectors.” He indicated the Commission was prepared to stick with the current system through the winter.

The Commission, however, also issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (RM03-10) to amend blanket certificates to among other things require companies to say whether they report to price publications or not and tighten requirements for price reporting procedures. It also noted that its investigation into price indexes (AD03-7) could yield a mandate on price reporting if that was deemed necessary.

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