Although pipelines and producers are often at odds on major issues before FERC, the groups are “steadfast in our mutual support for reforms” to promote the construction of interstate natural gas pipeline mainline expansions, certain storage facilities and takeaway facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, top officials of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said in a joint letter to FERC last Tuesday.

INGAA and NGSA are in basic agreement with each other on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s proposed rule that seeks to expand the scope and scale of blanket-certificate authorizations to include the construction of certain mainline expansions, storage improvements and LNG takeaway facilities. Traditionally, blanket-certificate authority has been limited to only minor gas projects.

The notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), which was issued in June, favorably responded to a November 2005 proposal of INGAA and NGSA that called on the Commission to extend blanket-certificate authority to larger gas facilities that previously were ineligible for such consideration (RM06-7]. Blanket certificates allow the holders to improve and upgrade existing gas facilities that meet certain criteria without the need to pursue time-consuming Section 7 Natural Gas Act certificate authorization.

“Our organizations have now had an opportunity to review each other’s comments” on the NOPR, and “are in agreement on major issues urging the Commission to liberalize restrictions on blanket processing under its proposal,” INGAA President Donald F. Santa and NGSA President R. Skip Horvath said in their letter to Chairman Joseph Kelliher. While there are a “number of differences” in each group’s comments, they are “more in the nature of degree or emphasis rather than principle.”

As part of the NOPR, FERC proposed raising the dollar limits for blanket construction projects. For projects that do not require companies to obtain prior notice from FERC, the agency seeks to increase the per-project cost limit to $9.6 million from $8.2 million. And for projects that to require prior notice, the per-project cost limit would be raised to $27.4 million from $22 million.

But INGAA and the NGSA want the Commission to adopt in its final rule the cost limits that were established on a temporary basis in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — $16 million for automatic projects and $50 million for prior-notice projects. “NGSA agrees with INGAA that these now time-tested limits should govern access to blanket procedures.”

Both groups said they also objected to FERC’s proposal to extend the deadline for protests of a blanket-certificate project to 60 days from 45 days, and a proposal to increase landowner notice of construction to 45 days from 30 days for automatic authorization projects. “We are now persuaded that both notification proposals are ill-advised…and urge the Commission to reconsider the need for increased notification.”

While both INGAA and the NGSA support FERC’s proposals to open mainline and some LNG-related projects to prior-notice blanket requirements, both groups urged the agency to go even further and allow blanket certificates for new takeaway lateral facilities that would connect “existing” LNG terminals with “existing” pipelines.

The two groups also asked the Commission to reconsider certain proposed environmental regulations, saying they are “ill-advised on a number of grounds.”

©Copyright 2006Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.