A group of natural gas producers and marketers has asked FERC toextend until July 9th the deadline for producer payments of anestimated $500 million in customer refunds. The refunds, which aredue March 9th, are owed to customers who purchased gas produced inKansas during the 1980s at costs that, because they included thestate’s ad valorem tax, exceeded the level allowed under theNatural Gas Policy Act (NGPA).

In addition, the group requested that FERC require pipelines tofurnish “supporting information” to verify refund calculations forproducers; clarify that only Kansas ad valorem taxes must berefunded “only if and to the extent” they caused the price of gasto exceed the NGPA ceiling; and permit producers to dispute therefund amounts based on prior settlements. The petition wassubmitted by Atlantic Richfield, Chevron U.S.A., Texas Natural Gasand Vastar Gas Marketing. Vastar Resources, an affiliate ofproducer Vastar Gas, is a party to the proceeding.

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