FERC affirms market transparency rules, requires gas transaction reporting

摘要

The commission on Thursday largely affirmed its market transparency rules for wholesale buyers and sellers of gas, requiring reporting of physical gas transactions used in the formation of price indexes.rnAfter further discussions with gas market participants, including two technical conferences, FERC unanimously approved a rehearing order providing certain clarifications, saying the rule is needed to improve the commission's understandingrnof how index prices are formed and how index pricing is used in gas markets.rnThe rule requires the reporting of data for transactions involving volumes that use next-day or next-month price indexes, and volumes that are or could be reported to a price index publisher, even if the respondent has chosen not to report to a publisher. Bilateral, arms-length, fixed price, physical gas transactions between non-affiliated companies are all subject tornthe requirement.rnThe commission eliminated an earlier requirement that traders report only for specific reportable locations and instead said traders must also report transactions at locations not designated by an index publisher.