Certificates

On a day of giving that included certificates for multiple pipeline expansions (see related stories), FERC also showed it can taketh away. The Commission said Wednesday it will let the price-cap waiver expire Sept. 30 in its pilot program on short-term capacity release transactions.

Among its many pipeline expansion certificates Wednesday, FERC granted Missouri Interstate Gas LLC permission to take control of an existing but idle crude oil pipeline in Missouri and turn it into a natural gas pipeline.

FERC issued final certificates last week to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Phase III expansion project and the related HubLine expansion by Algonquin Gas Transmission. The integrated expansions will increase transportation of Atlantic Canadian gas to the Boston area. In addition, New York gained significant new transportation capacity with a FERC certificate for Iroquois’ Eastchester project to New York City and a favorable preliminary determination on non-environmental issues for Islander East Pipeline Co. LLC’s 40-mile pipeline from Connecticut to Long Island, NY.

FERC issued final certificates Wednesday morning to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Phase III expansion project and related HubLine expansion by Algonquin Gas Transmission. The integrated expansions will increase transportation of Atlantic Canadian gas to the Boston area. In addition, Iroquois’ Eastchester project received a final green light from FERC. The $174 million Eastchester project will add 230,000 Dth/d of capacity to the Iroquois system to increase deliveries mainly to New York City power generators.

FERC last week issued a final certificate to Southern Natural Gas to expand its pipeline system to serve new power generation in Alabama and gave Tennessee Gas Pipeline the green light to increase firm takeaway capacity at connections with Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and Portland Natural Gas Transmission in Massachusetts in order to increase the supply of Canadian natural gas to New England power plants.

FERC last week granted certificates, subject to conditions, toCentral New York Oil and Gas Co. (CNYOG) to proceed with theconstruction of its Stagecoach storage project and to Tennessee GasPipeline to build a lateral connecting its system with the storagefacility.

FERC yesterday granted certificates, subject to conditions, toCentral New York Oil and Gas Co. (CNYOG) to proceed with theconstruction of its Stagecoach storage project and to Tennessee GasPipeline to build a lateral connecting its system with the storagefacility.

In an attempt to bring more uniformity to its certificatepolicy, FERC last week issued a final rule abandoning itsoptional-certificate (OC) regulations that offered speedierprocessing of pipeline applications for sponsors who were willingto assume all of the risks.

A new Office of Energy Projects will oversee the engineering andenvironmental review aspects of pipeline certificates, splitting”our economic and non-economic regulatory efforts,” FERC ChairmanJames Hoecker said.