Removal of Outdated Regulations Pertaining to the Sales of Natural Gas Production

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is issuing an order on rehearing concerning the deletion of a section of the Commission's regulations implementing the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA). That section provided that any sale by an affiliate of an interstate pipeline, intrastate pipeline, or local distribution company (LDC) is a first sale under the NGPA unless the Commission determines not to treat it as such. The Commission finds that Congress eliminated the only statutory basis for defining pipeline and LDC affiliate marketers as first sellers and reaffirms the Commission's finding that, with the decontrol of wellhead pricing, no purpose is any longer served by the anti-circumvention rule deleted by the Commission's previous order.