Natural Gas
Straight Talk Fuels Natural Gas
Andrews Kurth’s prominent national reputation as counselors on issues involving regulation of the natural gas industry is based on decades of achievements in pipeline proceedings.
Often seen and heard on emerging and cutting-edge projects and matters, our lawyers have extensive experience in the wide range of issues that have regulated natural gas pipelines. We are experienced in areas including:
- Rate regulation
- Certificates
- Abandonment
- Office of Accounting audits
- Enforcement
- Contracts issues
We have played key roles in proceedings affecting the rates and certificate applications of more than a dozen different federally regulated gas transmission companies. Our experience includes litigating cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other administrative bodies, as well as the courts. Our lawyers also are experienced in resolving conflicts among joint owners of pipeline facilities and negotiating settlements of, as well as litigating, major Section 4 rate cases on behalf of our pipeline clients.
Andrews Kurth has represented pipelines that serve virtually every region of the United States. Representative of our experience are such matters as:
- Open-Access Tariffs—Represented two interstate natural gas pipeline clients and prepared filings used as the template for open-access tariffs for the U.S. interstate natural gas pipeline industry.
- Incentive Rates—Obtained the first authorization for an interstate natural gas pipeline to collect incentive rates pursuant to a FERC rulemaking.
- Lease-Back Authorization—Obtained the first authorization from FERC for multiple sponsors of a pipeline to enter into lease-back arrangements.
- Production and Gathering Exemption─Prosecuted several of the leading cases that have delineated the scope of the NGA’s production and gathering exemption over the past quarter century.
Natural Gas Corporate and Contractual Counsel
In addition to representing pipelines in regulatory proceedings before FERC, we negotiate on their behalf a broad range of contractual arrangements applicable to pipeline development, construction and operations. Our in-depth resources allow us to counsel readily on related antitrust, corporate, environmental, litigation and tax matters. The scope of our counsel includes:
- Pipeline MLP─Our corporate and tax lawyers helped create the first master limited partnership (MLP), a form of business organization that has gained prominence in the pipeline industry. Andrews Kurth has been involved in approximately 70 percent of all MLP offerings and Royalty Trusts.
- Pipeline Developments─We have negotiated and drafted documentation for the construction, sale, acquisition and financing of numerous pipeline systems.
- Antitrust Acquisition Counsel─Our antitrust attorneys have provided guidance for significant acquisitions of gas pipelines and helped guide those transactions through the Hart-Scott-Rodino review process.
