In addition to regulation by other federal, state, and local regulatory authorities, interstate pipeline transportation and storage services and related assets are subject to regulation by the FERC. Federal regulation extends to such matters as:
- Transportation and sale for resale of natural gas in interstate commerce;
- Rates, operating terms, types of services, and conditions of service;
- Certification and construction of new interstate pipelines and storage facilities;
- Acquisition, extension, disposition, or abandonment of existing interstate pipelines and storage facilities;
- Accounts and records;
- Depreciation and amortization policies;
- Relationships with affiliated companies that are involved in marketing functions of the natural gas business;
- Market manipulation in connection with interstate sales, purchases, or transportation of natural gas.
Regulatory or administrative actions in these areas, including successful complaints or protests against the rates of the gas pipelines, can affect Williams’, Transco’s, and NWP’s businesses in many ways, including decreasing tariff rates and revenues or setting future tariff rates to levels such that revenues are inadequate to recover increases in operating costs or to sustain an adequate return on capital investments, decreasing volumes in the pipelines, increasing costs, and otherwise altering the profitability of the pipeline business.
Furthermore, Transco charges its transportation customers a separate fee to access its offshore facilities in the Gulf of America, unlike other interstate pipelines that own facilities offshore. The separate charge is referred to as an “IT feeder” charge. The “IT feeder” rate is charged only when gas is actually transported on the applicable facilities and typically it is paid by producers or marketers. Because the “IT feeder” rate is typically paid by producers and marketers, it generally results in netback prices to producers that are slightly lower than the netbacks realized by producers transporting on other interstate pipelines. This rate design disparity can result in producers bypassing Transco’s offshore facilities in favor of alternative transportation facilities.