Filing Natural Gas Pipeline Flow Diagrams and Associated Information

These guidelines provide instructions on how to file natural gas pipeline flow diagrams and associated information including the diagrams filed in:

• Exhibit G,
• Exhibit G-1, and
• Exhibit G-II

of pipeline certificate applications,

• Exhibit V of abandonment applications,
• FERC Form 567, and
• other flow diagrams submitted for the analyses of gas pipeline applications.

In general, natural gas pipeline flow diagrams are considered CEII. However, supporting information submitted with these flow diagrams often contains information that should be public. Normally, information filed with the flow diagrams contains public information, CEII, and privileged information. Pursuant to and § 388.113(d)(1)(i-ii) of the Commission's regulations, each designation must be clearly labeled and filed as a separate volume.

• Public - In general, narratives such as descriptions of facilities and processes are public. However, if there are specific engineering details and design details of a critical infrastructure in narrative form, the information may be CEII or privileged. Examples of public information include design assumptions, engineering and operating philosophies, most design specifications of equipment and pipelines, and narrative descriptions of pipeline operations.
• CEII - CEII is limited and includes specific engineering and detailed design information about pipeline facilities, components, and equipment. Examples of CEII include detailed natural gas flow diagrams filed in Exhibits G, G-1, and G-II of pipeline certificate applications, Exhibit V of abandonment applications, and FERC Form No. 567. Also, pipeline computer simulation models may be considered CEII unless they contain proprietary or business confidential information, in which case they should be filed as privileged.
• Privileged - In general, documents containing manufacturers' proprietary or business confidential design information are examples of privileged documents. Material that a submitter can justify as exempt from public release pursuant to FOIA Exemption 4 should be filed under this criterion.