FERC accepts TC pre-file application

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted an April 23 request by TransCanada for pre-file status for the company’s Alaska gas pipeline project. Denali, the BP-ConocoPhillips Alaska pipeline project, was granted pre-filing status last June, FERC said.

The docket for the TransCanada project is PF09-11-000.

In a May 1 letter, the FERC’s director of the Office of Energy Projects, Mark Robinson, told TransCanada that his staff will notify the company when it requires the assistance of a third-party contractor. TransCanada has committed to fund a third-party contractor to assist FERC in development of an environmental impact statement for the project.

Robinson said the complexity of the Alaska pipeline project calls for initiating the pre-filing process “as early in the development of the application as possible.” TransCanada plans to apply for a FERC certificate in October 2012.

TransCanada’s Tony Palmer, head of the company’s Alaska project, has told Alaska legislators the company is worried that pre-filing early, rather than after a successful open season as is normally done, could increase costs for the project. Palmer also said, however, that TransCanada was aware of the FERC’s desire to have the company pre-file early, and was working with the regulator on a resolution satisfactory to both.

—Kristen Nelson