eForms
Form 6 - Annual Report of Oil Pipeline Companies
Overview & Orders
The Form No. 6 is designed to collect financial and operational
information from oil pipeline companies subject to the jurisdiction
of the
Commission.
The following is a list of important Commission Orders and/or
decisions regarding the Form No. 6:
- Order
620 [eLibrary], issued December 13, 2000, requires all
jurisdictional oil pipeline companies to use the Commission's
software to electronically file Form 6 commencing with reporting
year 2000, due on or before March 31, 2001;
- Order
606 [PDF, 38K], issued August 4, 1999, revises regulations
governing oil pipelines. The regulations to be modified or
deleted
are located in 18 C.F.R. Parts 3, 341, 342, 343, 346, 357,
362, and 385. These revisions are intended to clarify the
Commission's
regulations and bring them up to date;
- Order
572 [PDF, 83K], issued October 28, 1994, amended regulations
to adopt filing requirements and procedures with respect to
an application by an oil pipeline for a determination that
it lacks significant market power in which it proposes to
charge
market-based rates.
This rule adopts procedural rules in order
to implement the Commission's Order No. 561 market-based
ratemaking policy, which was published in the Federal Register
on November
4, 1993. In that order, the Commission adopted a simplified
and generally applicable ratemaking methodology for oil
pipelines,
which is an indexing system to establish ceilings on those
rates.
The Commission also continued its policy
of allowing an oil pipeline to attempt to show that it lacks
significant market power in which it proposes to charge market-based
rates. However, an oil pipeline may not charge market-based
rates until the Commission concludes that the oil pipeline
lacks significant market power in the relevant markets.
- Order
561-A [PDF, 97K], issued July 28, 1994, amended regulations
to revise the requirements for filing suspension supplements
of oil pipeline tariffs in order to provide additional time
to file suspension supplements; to modify the circumstances
under which oil pipelines may use the cost-of-service methodology
for changing rates in order to more closely track the standard
for shipper protests to an indexed rate; and to modify the
requirements to protests to oil pipeline tariff filings in
order to require
that a protestant file a verified statement to support its
claim of a substantial interest in the proceeding.
The effects of these actions will be to provide
more accurate, timely, and balanced approach to oil pipeline
ratemaking under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and the Interstate
Commerce Act.
- Order
561 [PDF, 192K], issued October 22, 1993, provides a simplified
and generally applicable approach to changing just and reasonable
oil pipeline rates. The simplified and generally applicable
approach, adopted in this final rule, for changing oil pipeline
rates is an indexing system which will establish ceiling levels
for such rates.
The Final Rule permits cost-of-service proceedings
to establish just and reasonable rates, with regard to initial
rates for new service, and also with regard to changes to
existing rates where appropriate.
The Final Rule retains the Commission's current
policy of encouraging settlements of rate issues at any stage.
The Final Rule does not disturb current Commission
practice, which permits a pipeline to seek Commission authorization
to charge market-based rates. However, until the Commission
makes the finding that the pipeline does not exercise significant
market power, the pipeline's rates cannot exceed the applicable
index ceiling level or level justified by the pipeline's
cost of service.
- Opinion
154-B [PDF, 38K], issued June 28, 1985. On March 9, 1984,
the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part the Commission's
opinion in Phase I of this proceeding.
The purpose in Phase I was to devise generic
principles for the setting of just and reasonable oil pipeline
rates. One essential ingredient in this task is to adopt rate
base and rate of return methodologies which will operate
together to produce a just and reasonable return allowance.
The Commission concluded that with the exception
of the starting rate base, a rate base methodology derived
from original cost rate making models should be adopted. As
the court observed, original cost is a "proven alternative".
As the Commission has observed, "the language of American
finance is an original cost language" for American industry
reports its earnings on net book investment.
Hence, original cost is the best yardstick
to compare an oil pipeline to other oil pipelines, to other
industrial companies, to other industries, and to the entire
American economy in order to approximate the oil pipeline's
cost of capital.
Therefore, the Commission adopted the Trended
Original Cost (TOC) as the model for calculating rate based,
and therefore, determining revenue requirements.
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Contact
Information
Submission Software Questions
FERC Online Support
Telephone: 202-502-6652
Toll-free: 1-866-208-3676
Email: ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov
Form 6/6-Q Filing Matters
Samuel Berrios
Telephone: 202-502-6212
Email: samuel.berrios@ferc.gov
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