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The
NewsRoom
Release #: 3092
Date: May 13, 2004
MMS
to Hold Final Public Meeting to Explore Potential Pipeline Authority
Pipeline
Companies, Producers Encouraged to Provide Comments
The Minerals Management Service is exploring
potential new authority to ensure open and non-discriminatory access
to oil and gas pipelines, and is gaining insights from the public
through a series of public meetings. MMS will hold its final public
meeting Friday in New Orleans.
The public meeting will provide an opportunity
for industry representatives, the general public and other groups to
comment on the bureau’s potential implementation of pipeline authority
for oil and natural gas.
A recent court order determined that the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not have authority to require
data submittals for certain natural gas pipelines in the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS) and indicated the Interior Department may be
the most appropriate federal regulator of pipeline access.
Companies engaged in the activity of moving oil
and natural gas production on the Outer Continental Shelf may still be
subject to the FERC’s jurisdiction. However, if the FERC declares
that a company’s facilities perform a “gathering” function rather than
a “transportation’ function, then the facilities are exempt from the
FERC’s jurisdiction under the Natural Gas Act. As such, the FERC will
not impose its ratemaking authorities (tariff calculation guidelines)
on that facility. Ensuring open and nondiscriminatory access to these
gathering pipelines may then fall to the MMS.
May 14, 2004
- 9:00 a.m.
Public Meeting
MMS
Room 111
1201 Elmwood Park Blvd
New Orleans, LA
More information is available in the
Federal
Register notice online:
MMS, part of the
Department of the Interior, manages the nation's oil, natural gas, and
other mineral resources on the OCS in federal offshore waters. The
agency also collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues
from Federal and American Indian lands. Between 1982 and 2003, MMS
distributed more than $135 billion in revenues from onshore and
offshore lands, an average of more than $6 billion per year, to the
Nation, States and American Indians. Nearly $1 billion from those
revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund annually for the
development of State and Federal park and recreation lands.
Relevant Web Sites
MMS Main Website
Gulf of Mexico Web Site
Media Contacts
Curtis Carey
(202) 208-3985
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for
America
U.S. Department of the Interior |