IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v8y1990i2p159-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross‐Contract Crediting Under Ferc Order 500

Author

Listed:
  • STEPHEN J. DeCANIO

Abstract

In remanding Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 436, the US. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not require the FERC to issue a new policy on “take‐or‐pay” contracts between interstate pipelines and natural gas producers. The court asked only that the FERC meet the standard of “reasoned decision making.” FERC Order 500, in proposing the mechanism of cross‐contract crediting to reformulate take‐or‐pay contracts, went far beyond the court's decision. Take‐or‐pay contracts are but one component of an interrelated set of long‐run commitments by both pipelines and gas producers upstream and downstream. The FERC's abrogating take‐or‐pay contracts would reverberate beyond the immediate consequences for pipelines and producers. Implementing Order 500 would change the conditions under which gas producers explore, develop, and extract. It would influence the terms of future lease and royalty contracts with owners of mineral rights, and it would have adverse consequences for end users of gas. Evidence exists that promulgating Order 500 increased spot gas prices. Most take‐or‐pay problems have been resolved through voluntary renegotiation by the parties. Nullifying the remaining contracts through regulation will not accomplish the pro‐competitive goals that have guided the FERC's natural gas policy during the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • STEPHEN J. DeCANIO, 1990. "Cross‐Contract Crediting Under Ferc Order 500," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(2), pages 159-175, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:2:p:159-175
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00597.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00597.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00597.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldberg, Victor P & Erickson, John R, 1987. "Quantity and Price Adjustment in Long-term Contracts: A Case Study of Petroleum Coke," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 369-398, October.
    2. Hillman, A L, 1984. "Producer and Consumer Interests, the State-Owned Pipeline, and Public Authority Pricing of Natural Gas," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 60(168), pages 28-33, March.
    3. Williamson, Oliver E, 1979. "Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractural Relations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 233-261, October.
    4. Hubbard, R Glenn & Weiner, Robert J, 1986. "Regulation and Long-term Contracting in U.S. Natural Gas Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 71-79, September.
    5. Masten, Scott E, 1988. "Minimum Bill Contracts: Theory and Policy," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 85-97, September.
    6. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    7. Joskow, Paul L, 1987. "Contract Duration and Relationship-Specific Investments: Empirical Evidence from Coal Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(1), pages 168-185, March.
    8. Armen Alchian & Susan Woodward, 1997. "The Firm is Dead; Long Live the Firm: A Review of Oliver E. Williamson's The Economic Institutions of Capitalism," Chapters, in: Svetozar Pejovich (ed.), The Economic Foundations of Property Rights, chapter 15, pages 206-220, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Masten, Scott E & Crocker, Keith J, 1985. "Efficient Adaptation in Long-term Contracts: Take-or-Pay Provisions for Natural Gas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 1083-1093, December.
    10. A. L. Hillman, 1984. "Producer and Consumer Interests, the State‐Owned Pipeline, and Public Authority Pricing of Natural Gas," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 60(1), pages 28-33, March.
    11. Harry G. Broadman, 1986. "Natural gas deregulatin: The need for further reform," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(3), pages 496-516.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyle J. Mayer & Nicholas S. Argyres, 2004. "Learning to Contract: Evidence from the Personal Computer Industry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 394-410, August.
    2. Chi-Kong Chyong, 2015. "Markets and long-term contracts: The case of Russian gas supplies to Europe," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1542, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. López-Bayón, Susana & González-Díaz, Manuel, 2010. "Indefinite contract duration: Evidence from electronics subcontracting," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 145-159, June.
    4. Marco Furlotti, 2007. "There is more to contracts than incompleteness: a review and assessment of empirical research on inter-firm contract design," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 61-99, March.
    5. Anjana Susarla, 2012. "Contractual Flexibility, Rent Seeking, and Renegotiation Design: An Empirical Analysis of Information Technology Outsourcing Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1388-1407, July.
    6. Gibbons, Robert, 2005. "Four forma(lizable) theories of the firm?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 200-245, October.
    7. Ranjani Krishnan & Deepa Mani, 2020. "Uncertainty and Compensation Design in Strategic Interfirm Contracts†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 542-574, March.
    8. Mayer, Kyle J. & Teece, David J., 2008. "Unpacking strategic alliances: The structure and purpose of alliance versus supplier relationships," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 106-127, April.
    9. Fan, Joseph P. H., 2000. "Price uncertainty and vertical integration: an examination of petrochemical firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 345-376, December.
    10. Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney, 2020. "Transaction Cost Economics As a Theory of Supply Chain Efficiency," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(4), pages 1011-1031, April.
    11. Oliver E. Williamson, 2005. "The Economics of Governance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 1-18, May.
    12. Robert Gibbons, 2010. "Transaction‐Cost Economics: Past, Present, and Future?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(2), pages 263-288, June.
    13. Ricardo Sanhueza & José Miguel Sánchez & Ricardo D. Paredes Molina, 2001. "Participación privada en proyectos de infraestructura y determinantes de los arreglos contractuales observados: El caso de Chile," Research Department Publications 3110, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    14. M'Hand Farès & Stéphane Saussier, 2002. "Coûts de transaction et contrats incomplets," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 16(3), pages 193-230.
    15. Christian Hirschhausen & Anne Neumann, 2008. "Long-Term Contracts and Asset Specificity Revisited: An Empirical Analysis of Producer–Importer Relations in the Natural Gas Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 32(2), pages 131-143, March.
    16. Nicholas S. Argyres & Janet Bercovitz & Kyle J. Mayer, 2007. "Complementarity and Evolution of Contractual Provisions: An Empirical Study of IT Services Contracts," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 3-19, February.
    17. Joseph C. Mullin & Wallace P. Mullin, 1996. "United States Steel's Acquisition of the Great Northern Ore Properties: Vertical Foreclosure or Efficient Contractual Governance?," NBER Working Papers 5662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Costello, Anna M., 2013. "Mitigating incentive conflicts in inter-firm relationships: Evidence from long-term supply contracts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 19-39.
    19. Gine,Xavier & Jacoby,Hanan G. & Gine,Xavier & Jacoby,Hanan G., 2016. "Markets, contracts, and uncertainty in a groundwater economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7694, The World Bank.
    20. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5372 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Chi Kong Chyong, 2019. "European Natural Gas Markets: Taking Stock and Looking Forward," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(1), pages 89-109, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:2:p:159-175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.