On May 10, 2017, FERC issued notice that FERC staff will convene a technical conference on June 29, 2017 on natural gas index liquidity and transparency.  Specifically, the purpose of the technical conference is to (1) understand the state of liquidity in physical natural gas markets; (2) explore trends in physical gas trading and price reporting and how the use of natural gas indices have evolved over time; (3) obtain industry views on the confidence in natural gas indices and price formation; and (4) consider whether there is a need to improve natural gas market liquidity and price reporting and, if so, how.

In the notice, FERC stated that staff will discuss natural gas index liquidity and transparency issues with buyers and sellers of physical natural gas, natural gas pipelines, and independent system operators/regional transmission organizations or public utilities that use natural gas indices in their tariffs, as well as with market monitors, index developers, energy exchanges, academics, and market experts.  FERC noted that staff recognizes that numerous factors influence market liquidity and encouraged interested parties to speak about price discovery, liquidity evaluation, and market activity measurement in the physical natural gas markets, among other things influencing natural gas markets.

The technical conference will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (EDT) in the Commission Meeting Room at 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.  In addition, there will be a free webcast of the conference that will allow persons to listen, but not participate.  The webcast will be accessible at www.ferc.gov under Calendar of Events.

A copy of the notice of technical conference is available here.