What is gas scheduling?

Gas scheduling is a continuous process that is conducted 365 days per year five or more times per day spanning about 2/3 of each calendar day.  When you think of the word "scheduling" you may think more along the lines of maintaining a calendar and scheduling certain events at certain times/days.  While there is a time-sensitive aspect to what a gas scheduler does, it really is more complex than that.  Gas scheduling is the task of coordinating with a natural gas pipeline's customers, interconnected facilities and other internal departments to facilitate customers' day-to-day business of transporting and/or storing natural gas on a pipeline system, taking into account:

• The contractual rights a customer has on the transportation or storage contracts they have purchased from a pipeline.
• The rules specified in that pipeline's Tariff that both the pipeline and the customers must follow.
• The regulatory requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that governs all interstate natural gas pipelines.
• Compliance with the North America Energy Standards Board (NAESB) standards covering transacting business on interstate natural gas pipelines.
• The physical limitations of moving natural gas through a pipeline.
• Market forces that impact the regional prices of natural gas, and therefore the transportation trends across a pipeline system.

A pipeline's Tariff is an open contract with customers who wish to do business on that pipeline.  It publicly outlines the services provided, rates and fees, terms and conditions of service and all of the rules the pipeline and the customers must follow.