RCA extends confidentiality ruling time for BP-Hilcorp pipeline issues
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Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska said in a Jan. 7 order that it is extending its time to rule on petitions for confidential treatment of filings by Harvest Alaska, Hilcorp Alaska and Harvest Midstream in applications for sale of pipelines by BP Pipelines (Alaska) to Harvest Alaska. Harvest Alaska is the subsidiary of Hilcorp which owns the company’s pipelines.
The pipelines in question, part of BP’s sale of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp, are the PTE Pipeline, the Milne Point Pipeline and the transfer of BP’s certificate of public convenience and necessity for the trans Alaska oil pipeline system.
The commission has said it would not set a timeline for its decision on the transfers until it ruled on petitions for confidential treatment. By regulation RCA has 30 days after the end of the comment period to rule on petitions for confidential treatment. The public comment period ended Dec. 13, which would have required a decision on the confidentiality issue on Jan. 10.
The commission said it received numerous comments in response to its public notices and also requested and received new documents from Harvest Alaska and BPPA.
“We need additional time to review those recent filings and issue our ruling on the petitions for confidential treatment and motions for waiver,” the commission said, and as a result it is extending time to rule on those matters to Feb. 11.
The commission noted that as it previously explained, it would set no timeline on a decision on applications for sale of pipelines and transfer of certificate until it rules on the petitions for confidential treatment and motions of waiver.
Company filings In addition to the financial filings they already provided to RCA, in January Harvest Alaska and BP Pipelines (Alaska) submitted the asset and sale agreement related to the proposed pipeline transfers - both a complete copy and a partially redacted copy of the “Purchase and Sale Agreement By and Among The Standard Oil Company and BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., as Seller, and Hilcorp Alaska, LLC and Harvest Alaska, LLC, as Buyer” dated Aug. 26.
The submittal was filed as confidential and the companies also filed a petition for confidential treatment of the PSA, the purchase and sale agreement. The redactions included names of employees and specific salary information, “certain dollar amounts and percentages, and the disclosure schedules, none of which are related to the issue in front of the Commission.”
In filings supporting their petitions for confidential treatment of financial filings and the PSA, Hilcorp said its financial information is not disclosed to the public and disclosure of that information would “give their competitors an unfair advantage, and unfairly advantage potential competitors, buyers, and contractors, especially where those competitors, buyers, or contractors do not make their own financial information public.”
In arguments for confidentiality of the PSA, the companies said the sale was a negotiated transaction on a number of subjects that each of the parties wants to maintain confidential.
The parties also said information “within the PSA goes far beyond that related to the transfers of the regulated pipeline infrastructure at issue in the” application before the commission.
They said disclosure of the PSA would provide competitors “valuable insight into the disclosing party’s negotiating strategy and economic valuations of interests in oil and gas properties.”
- KRISTEN NELSON
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