[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 136 (Monday, July 16, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37032-37033]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-17684]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Public Conference: Factors That Affect Prices of Refined 
Petroleum Products

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice announcing public conference and opportunity for public 
comment.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') will 
hold an initial public conference on August 2, 2001, to examine issues 
concerning prices of refined petroleum products in the United States. 
The Commission intends to solicit information and views relevant to the 
major factors affecting prices of refined products, and the relative 
importance of such factors. The Commission will hear from all 
interested parties--including consumer groups, industry participants, 
and independent experts--to identify issues that merit in-depth study 
in public hearings to be held later this year. Interested parties are 
invited to attend or to submit written presentations.

DATES: The public conference will be held on August 2, 2001. It will be 
open to the public, without fee, and advance registration is not 
required. Seats in the conference room will be available on a first-
come, first-served basis; limited overflow seating will be available to 
view the conference via closed-circuit television. Because of the 
limited time available before the conference, written presentations may 
be submitted by September 14, 2001.

ADDRESSES: The initial public conference will be held in Room 432 of 
the Federal Trade Commission Headquarters Building, 600 Pennsylvania 
Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. All interested parties are 
invited to attend. Any interested party may submit a written 
presentation relevant to the Commission's inquiry; such presentations 
should be submitted on or before September 14, 2001. To facilitate 
efficient review of public presentations, each public presentation 
should if possible be filed in electronic form (as a WordPerfect, Word, 
or ASCII text file), by attaching it to an email message sent to the 
following email box: [email protected]. The email 
message to which the presentation is attached should include the 
caption ``Presentation on Factors that Affect Prices of Refined 
Petroleum Products;'' the name of the presenter; and the name and 
version of the word processing program used to create the comment. 
Presentations which are instead filed in paper form should include the 
same caption and the name of the presenter, and should be addressed to 
Donald S. Clark, Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Mongoven, Office of Policy and 
Evaluation, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 390, Washington, DC 20580; (202) 326-
2879 (telephone); [email protected]. (email). A detailed agenda and 
additional information relating to the public conference will be posted 
on the Commission's website, http://www.ftc.gov, in advance of the 
conference.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The level and volatility of prices of 
refined petroleum products have resulted in increased public concern. 
Both crude oil and refined petroleum products prices have been volatile 
in recent years, including occasional price spikes that have brought 
prices to high levels. In addition, the oil industry has experienced 
substantial restructuring through mergers and joint ventures in the 
1990s.
    The Commission has longstanding expertise and authority with 
respect to the oil and refined petroleum products industries. For 
example, the Commission has recently concluded two investigations into 
gasoline prices on the West Coast and in a number of Midwestern states. 
The Commission has also conducted antitrust investigations of a number 
of recent oil industry mergers, and issued orders requiring substantial 
divestitures in several cases to preserve competition.
    Because of the importance to the American economy of issues raised 
in these investigations, the Commission plans to broaden its focus 
beyond law enforcement and to study in more detail the central factors 
that can affect the level and volatility of refined petroleum products 
prices throughout the United States.
    This public conference will be the first step in soliciting 
information from interested parties that will assist the Commission in 
structuring later hearings to focus in a comprehensive manner on the 
most relevant and important issues. During this initial

[[Page 37033]]

conference, participants will be asked to assist in identifying the 
issues that they find to be the most significant and that merit further 
study by the Federal Trade Commission.
    The Commission anticipates that participants in the initial 
conference will focus on domestic and international aspects of some or 
all of the following areas: (1) The supply of crude oil, including 
exploration, production, importation, and transportation of crude oil; 
(2) the refining of fuel products and the importation of refined 
products; (3) the transportation of refined petroleum products; (4) the 
marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products; and (5) other 
factors that participants believe may be of interest to the Commission. 
Due to the expected high level of interest in this inquiry, 
participants will be limited to brief presentations, with questions and 
discussion to follow.
    The Commission anticipates that the information gathered at this 
initial conference, and studied in greater depth at the later hearings, 
will lead to insights of importance to public policy concerning the 
level and volatility of prices of refined petroleum products, which the 
Commission expects to summarize and discuss in a public report.

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 01-17684 Filed 7-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P