On December 17, 2020, the FERC established a new index level to calculate annual changes for interstate oil pipeline rate ceilings. This index level adjustment comes after the FERC concluded its fifth five-year review of the index under Order No. 561. In addition, the FERC reviewed comments responding to a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) issued June 18, 2020 and examined the page 700 data from FERC Form No. 6, Annual Report of Oil Pipeline Companies. The FERC has set this new index level of Producer Price Index for Finished Goods plus 0.78 percent (PPI-FG+0.78%) for the five-year period from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2026.
FERC’s calculation of the index level included, among other factors, adopting a proposal to adjust the data set to remove the effects of the FERC’s 2018 income tax policy change for Master Limited Partnership-owned pipelines, as well as adopting some commenters’ proposals to trim the data set to the middle 80 percent of cost changes. Also, those pipelines that either did not provide FERC Form No. 6 page 700 data or provided incomplete data were removed from the calculation.
Sources:
FERC Establishes New Five-Year Index Level for Interstate Oil Pipeline Rates (ferc.gov)
