Revisions to Oil Pipeline Regulations Pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 1992

In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of this document during normal business hours at 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20426. The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic bulletin board service, provides access to the texts of formal documents issued by the Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to the user and may be accessed using a personal computer with a modem by dialing (202) 208-1397 if dialing locally, or 1-800-856-3720 if dialing long distance. To access CIPS, set your communications software to use 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, or 1200 bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. The full text of this document will be available on CIPS indefinitely; it can be found in ASCII and WordPerfect 6.1 format. The complete text on diskette in WordPerfect format may also be purchased from the Commission's copy contractor, La Dorn Systems Corporation, also located in the Public Reference Room at 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20426. The Commission's regulations include a methodology for oil pipelines to change their rates through use of an index system that establishes ceiling levels for such rates. The index system as set forth at 18 CFR 342.3 is based on the annual change in the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods (PPI-FG), minus one percent. The regulations provide that each year the Commission will publish an index reflecting the final change in the PPI-FG, minus one percent, after the final PPI-FG is made available by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May of each calendar year. The annual PPI-FD index figure for 1995 was 127.9 and the annual average PPI-FG index figure for 1996 was 131.3.\1\ Thus, the percent change

(expressed as a decimal) in the annual average PPI-FG from 1995 to 1996, minus one percent, is .016583.\2\ Oil pipelines must multiply their July 1, 1996-June 30, 1997 rate ceiling levels by 1.016583 to compute their rate ceiling levels for the period July 1, 1997 through June 30, 1998, in accordance with 18 CFR 342.3(d). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\1\ The final figure for the annual average PPI-FG is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in mid-May of each year. This figure is publicly available from the Division of Industrial Prices and Price Indexes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at (202) 606- 7705, and is available in print in August in Table 1 of the annual data supplement to the BLS publication Producer Price Indexes. \2\ [131.3-127.9]/127.9 = .026583-.01 = .016583. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

To obtain July 1, 1997-June 30, 1998 ceiling levels, pipelines must first calculate their ceiling levels for the January 1, 1995-June 30, 1995 index period, by multiplying their December 31, 1994 rates by 1.002175. Pipelines must then multiply those ceiling levels by 0.996514 to obtain the July 1, 1995-June 30, 1996 ceiling levels, and then multiply those ceiling levels by 1.009124 to obtain the July 1, 1996- June 30, 1997 ceiling levels. Finally, pipelines must multiply the July 1, 1996-June 30, 1997 ceiling levels by 1.016583 to obtain the July 1, 1997-June 30, 1998 ceiling levels. See Explorer Pipeline Company, 71 FERC para. 61416 n.6 (1995) for an explanation of how ceiling levels must be calculated. Lois D. Cashell, Secretary. [FR Doc. 97-13604 Filed 5-22-97; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6712-01-M