FERC Staff Issue Notice Alleging Gas Capacity Auction Violations

FERC Staff issued a notice that, "in a non-public, preliminary investigation," Staff of the FERC Office of Enforcement, "has preliminarily determined that Columbia Gas Transmission LLC (Columbia Gas) violated Part 4 of the General Term and Conditions of its FERC Gas Tariff by failing to post the notices of the auctions of its available firm capacity on the public side of its Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB), Navigates, between January 1, 2010 and May 1, 2013."

"This preliminary investigation was opened in response to a referral from the Division of Audits and Accounting requesting, in relevant part, that the Division of Investigations inquire further into the transparency of Columbia Gas’ capacity auctions," the Staff notice said

"In 2008, Columbia Gas replaced Navigator with a new software program, Navigates, which required a login ID to access its password-protected side. In 2009, the notices of the auctions were removed from the public side of Navigates and placed on its password-protected side. Columbia Gas restored the notices of the auctions to the public side of Navigates on May 1, 2013. Nonetheless, Columbia Gas’ failure to post the notices of the auctions of its available firm capacity on its public website for a period of four years posed a serious threat to transparency in the market, and may have compromised the Commission’s open-access transportation requirements," the Staff notice said