33 U.S.C. § 1507 — Common carrier status

(a) Status of deepwater ports and storage facilities. A deepwater port and a storage facility directly served by it must operate as a common carrier under the applicable provisions of part I of the Interstate Commerce Act and subtitle IV of title 49. They must accept, transport, or convey without discrimination all oil delivered to the deepwater port for which its license was issued, except as subsection (b) provides. (b) Discrimination prohibition; exceptions. A licensee is not discriminating under this section and is not subject to the common-carrier rules in subsection (a) if the licensee: (1) faces effective competition from alternative transportation systems for transporting oil; and (2) sets rates, fees, charges, and service conditions based on competition, considering other relevant business factors such as the market value of the services, the licensee's operating costs, and the licensee's investment in the deepwater port and in a directly served storage facility and its components. (c) Enforcement, suspension, or termination proceedings. If the Secretary has reason to believe a licensee is not complying with this section, the Secretary must begin an appropriate proceeding before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or ask the Attorney General to take appropriate steps to enforce compliance and, when appropriate, obtain appropriate sanctions. The Secretary may also suspend or revoke the license of a licensee that is not meeting its obligations under this section. (d) Managed access. Subsections (a) and (b) do not apply to deepwater ports for natural gas. A licensee of such a port, or an affiliate, may use all of the port's and storage facilities' capacity exclusively to accept, transport, store, regasify, or convey natural gas that the licensee or affiliates produce, process, market, or otherwise obtain by agreement. The licensee may make unused capacity available to others on reasonable terms and conditions set by the licensee if that use does not otherwise interfere in any way with those activities involving natural gas of the licensee or affiliates. (e) Jurisdiction. Despite the Natural Gas Act, any rule or regulation under that Act, or section 1518 of this title as it relates to that Act, this chapter applies to licensing, siting, construction, or operation of a deepwater natural-gas port and to accepting, transporting, storing, regasifying, or conveying natural gas at or through such a port. The Natural Gas Act and rules or regulations under it do not apply to those matters.