The glossary of terms is arranged alphabetically. Click on the
letters below to find terms beginning with that letter.
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B
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E
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M
N
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X
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Z
Off-peak: Period of low gas demand, like the
summer months in the Northeast. Open Access Transportation:
Pipeline transportation services that are available to all
shippers on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Open Season: Generally refers to a period of
time when all parties are given equal consideration. FERC
created "open seasons" to accept applications for new pipeline
capacity into the Northeast and Mobile Bay. A pipeline itself
may hold an "open season" to accept bids for new transportation
capacity.
Operational Balancing Agreement (OBA): An
agreement between a pipeline and parties at delivery or receipt
points, in which parties agree to specified procedures for
balancing discrepancies between nominated levels of service and
actual quantities. An OBA typically provides that any difference
between actual and scheduled volumes at a point will be recorded
as an imbalance for the upstream or downstream pipeline and not
on a shipper's transportation agreement. The pipeline provides a
means of balancing-either in-kind or through a cash-out- within
the OBA.
Order 636: FERC's final rule on pipeline
restructuring, issued April 8,1992. The rule ordered interstate
pipelines to unbundle sales from transportation services at
upstream points near production and offered blanket certificates
to allow pipelines to offer unbundled firm and interruptible
sales at market-based rates. Order 636 also required pipelines
to provide "no-notice" firm transportation for small customers,
allowed pre-granted abandonment for transportation service,
unbundled storage by defining it as part of transportation,
called for flexible receipt and delivery pints, and guaranteed
shipper access to capacity on upstream facilities.