Pipeline Group Defends Important FERC Decision

Steptoe’s Pipeline Group won a significant victory at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on behalf of Western Refining Pipeline Company, a crude oil pipeline in northwest New Mexico. The court dismissed a petition for review filed by Resolute Natural Resources Company and the Navajo Nation challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision that the agency could not require the pipeline to enter into a crude oil exchange arrangement with Resolute and Navajo. FERC held that the proposed exchange arrangement was not "transportation" that a FERC–regulated oil pipeline can be required to provide. The FERC decision was important not only for Western, but for the oil pipeline industry in general, and Steptoe's successful representation of Western preserves this important oil pipeline precedent.