Company: ACTG
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000934549-25-000004
Chunk: 36

Company: ACACIA RESEARCH CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 36
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 subject to the terms of any private contracts that may be in effect. Under the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (“2005 Act”), the NGA was amended to prohibit any forms of market manipulation in connection with the purchase or sale of natural gas. Pursuant to the 2005 Act, the FERC established regulations intended to increase natural gas pricing transparency by, among other things, requiring market participants to report their gas sales transactions annually to the FERC. The 2005 Act also significantly increased the penalties for violations of the NGA and NGPA and the FERC’s regulations. The current maximum penalty is approximately $1.6 million per day per violation.

Under the NGPA, natural gas gathering facilities are expressly exempt from FERC jurisdiction. What constitutes “gathering” under the NGPA has evolved through FERC decisions and judicial review of such decisions. We believe that our gathering and production facilities meet the test for non-jurisdictional “gathering” systems under the NGPA and that our facilities are not subject to federal regulations. Although exempt from FERC oversight, our natural gas gathering systems and services may receive regulatory scrutiny by state and federal agencies regarding the safety and operating aspects of the transportation and storage activities of these facilities.

Our natural gas sales prices continue to be affected by intrastate and interstate gas transportation regulation because the cost of transporting the natural gas once sold to the consuming market is a factor in the prices we receive. The rates and terms for access to natural gas pipeline transportation services are subject to extensive regulation. The FERC’s regulations require, among other things, that interstate natural gas pipelines provide firm and interruptible transportation service on an unbundled, open access, and non-discriminatory basis, provide internet access to current information about available pipeline capacity and other relevant information, and permit pipeline shippers under certain circumstances to release contracted transportation and storage capacity to other shippers, thereby creating secondary markets for such services. The rates for such transportation and storage services are subject to the FERC’s ratemaking authority, and the FERC exercises its authority by applying cost-of-service principles to limit the maximum and minimum levels of tariff-based recourse rates. However, it also allows for the negotiated rates as an alternative to cost-based rates and may grant market-based rates in certain circumstances, typically with respect to storage services. The FERC regulations also restrict interstate natural gas pipelines from sharing transportation or customer information with marketing affiliates and require that the transmission function personnel of interstate natural gas pipelines operate independently of the marketing function