The deadline by which interstate natural gas pipelines must pay undisputeed amounts of production-related costs to producers was set for Sept. 30 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
FERC designed the order, issued July 29, as a guideline to interstate pipelines and other purchasers with offset production-related costs due to producers against refund amounts for certain britishthermal unit overcharges owed to pipelines by producers.
The offset mechanism was vacated in a March 5 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
"Good cause exists," the commission said in light of the decision, not to hold pipelines that used the …