Background

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), and Québec’s ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MDDELCC)footnote 1 held a joint auction of greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances on February 21, 2018. The auction included a Current Auction of 2016 and 2018 vintage allowances and an Advance Auction of 2021 vintage allowances. The information provided in this report is a balance between the need for program transparency and protection of information about individual qualified bidders’ market positions.

Prior to the certification of the auction, CARB, MOECC, and MDDELCC staff and the independent Market Monitor carefully evaluated the bids and determined that the auction process and procedures complied with the requirements of the California, Ontario, and Québec Cap-and-Trade Regulations (the Regulations). As provided below, the Market Monitor made the following determination:

The Market Monitor found that the auction was cleared consistent with the auction clearing rules in the Regulations and appropriate economic logic. The Market Monitor confirmed the clearing price and clearing quantities by qualified bidder for the Current Auction of 2016 and 2018 vintage allowances and for the Advance Auction of 2021 vintage allowances. The auction algorithm correctly applied the requirements of the Regulations covering the bid guarantee. The Market Monitor did not observe any breaches of security or communication protocols.

The Market Monitor recommends that CARB, MOECC, and MDDELCC approve the February Auction results.

Auction proceeds figures are not shown in this report because of the exchange rate process for determining final auction proceeds in a joint auction. Winning bids are submitted in one of two currencies – United States dollars (USD) or Canadian dollars (CAD). After receiving payment from the winning bidders, and using instructions from the linked jurisdictions (California, Ontario, and Québec), the Financial Services Administrator will exchange some amount of currency at then-prevailing market rates prior to transferring the auction proceeds to the jurisdictions.

The Financial Services Administrator will distribute auction proceeds to the jurisdictions after all qualified bidder payments are received. The jurisdictions will receive auction proceeds by March 20, 2018. As provided in the California Cap-and-Trade Regulation, sellers who consigned allowances in this auction will be paid the auction settlement price in USD for every consigned allowance sold. Information regarding jurisdiction-specific auction proceeds will be published after the auction is final.

California must receive auction proceeds only in USD. Ontario and Québec must receive auction proceeds only in CAD. Thus, the total amount of auction proceeds received by the jurisdictions from the sale of allowances may be higher or lower than the auction settlement price multiplied by allowances sold depending on the prevailing exchange rates in effect at the time of currency exchange prior to the distribution of auction proceeds. Each jurisdiction will separately post information on March 20, 2018, providing the final amount of proceeds transferred.

Auction Results

The first table below provides key data and information on the results of the auction. The second table provides qualified bid summary statistics from the auction. Please see Explanatory Notes after the list of qualified bidders for descriptions of all summary information.

Table 1: Auction Results for February 2018 Joint Auction #14
  Current Auction
2016 Vintage
Current Auction
2018 Vintage
Current Auction
Total
Advance Auction
2021 Vintage
Total Allowances Available for Sale 14,894,520 83,321,400 98,215,920 12,427,950
CA Entity Consignment - 20,671,989 20,671,989 -
CARB 12,961,816 31,175,277 44,137,093 8,020,000
MOECC - 23,743,316 23,743,316 3,026,450
MDDELCC 1,932,704 7,730,818 9,663,522 1,381,500
Total Allowances Sold at Auction     98,215,920 8,576,000
CA Entity Consignment - 20,671,989 20,671,989 -
CARB 12,961,816 31,175,277 44,137,093 5,534,261
MOECC - 23,743,316 23,743,316 2,088,425
MDDELCC 1,932,704 7,730,818 9,663,522 953,314
Total Qualified Bids Divided by Total Allowances Available for Sale     1.21 0.69
Proportion of Allowances Purchased by Compliance Entities     92.1% 89.0%
Herfindahl-Hirschman Index 436 436   1727

Qualified Bid Summary Statistics

All Qualified Bid Summary Statistics are determined in USD including all bids submitted in USD and CAD. The CAD equivalent of the USD Qualified Bid Summary Statistics is based on the Auction Exchange Rate. USD statistics are converted into CAD in whole cents to be able to compare statistics on a common basis.

Table 2: Qualified Bid Summary Statistics for February 2018 Joint Auction #14
  Current 2016/2018 Vintage
USD
Current 2016/2018 Vintage
CAD
Advance 2021 Vintage
USD
Advance 2021 Vintage
CAD
Auction Reserve Price $14.53 $18.34 $14.53 $18.34
Settlement Price $14.61 $18.44 $14.53 $18.34
Maximum Price $54.27 $68.50 $22.19 $28.01
Minimum Price $14.53 $18.34 $14.53 $18.34
Mean Price $15.90 $20.07 $15.32 $19.34
Median Price $14.84 $18.73 $14.91 $18.82
Median Allowance Price $14.93 $18.84 $14.82 $18.71

Auction Exchange Rate (USD to CAD): $1.2622

List of qualified bidders for the for February 2018 Joint Auction #14

A qualified bidder is an entity that completed an auction application, submitted a bid guaranteefootnote 2 that was accepted by the Financial Services Administrator, and was approved by CARB, MOECC, or MDDELCC to participate in the auction. Qualified bidders may or may not have participated in the auction.

CITSS Entity ID Entity Legal Name
ON2306 1329606 Ontario Limited
QC2101 1443635 Ontario Inc
CA1185 Aera Energy LLC
CA1019 Air Liquide Large Industries U.S. LP
CA1561 AltaGas Power Holdings (U.S.) Inc.
QC2096 ArcelorMittal Produits longs Canada s.e.n.c.
QC1724 Bell-Gaz ltée
CA1180 bnsf railway company
CA1913 BP Products North America Inc.
CA1463 California Power Holdings LLc
ON2676 Canadian Pacific Railway Company
QC2580 Chauffage Benwell Fuels Ltd.
CA1075 Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
CA1037 City of Anaheim, Public Utilities Department
CA1732 City of Long Beach, Gas and Oil Department
CA1443 City of Los Angeles, Department of Airports
CA1166 City of Vernon, Vernon Public Utilities
CA2050 CP Energy Marketing (US) Inc.
ON2509 Econo Petroleum Inc.
ON2414 Elbow River Marketing Ltd
ON2176 Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc.
ON2458 Énergie Valero Inc / Valero Energy Inc
QC1384 Énergie Valero Inc.
ON2329 EPCOR Natural Gas Limited Partnership
ON2253 Federated Co-operatives Limited
CA1260 Flyers Energy, LLC
CA1234 Fresno Cogeneration Partners, LP
QC1750 Gazifère Inc.
QC1764 Gestion Énergie Québec Inc.
ON2162 Goodyear Canada Inc
QC1374 Graymont (QC) Inc.
ON2330 Great Lakes Greenhouses Inc.
ON2240 Greater Toronto Airports Authority
ON2203 Greenergy Fuels Canada Inc.
CA2113 Hartree Partners, LP
ON2315 Husky Oil Operations Limited
ON2288 Hydro One Networks Inc.
QC1359 Hydro-Québec
CA1807 Idemitsu Apollo
ON2189 Imperial Oil
CA1665 IPC (USA), Inc.
ON2210 Ivaco Rolling Mills 2004 L.P.
CA1727 Jaco Oil Company
CA1141 Kern Oil & Refining Co
ON2356 Koch Supply & Trading, LP
QC1901 La Coop Carbone
QC1431 Lantic Inc.
ON2504 Larry Penner Enterprises Inc.
QC2501 Le Groupe Harnois Inc
QC1770 Les Pétroles Irving Commercial s.e.n.c.
QC1730 Les Produits Pétroliers Norcan S.E.N.C.
CA1830 Luminus Energy Partners, LLC
ON2439 MacEwen Petroleum Inc.
CA1104 Macquarie Energy LLC
CA2111 mag energy solutions inc.
ON2187 Markham District Energy Incorporated
ON2457 McDougall Energy Inc.
CA2645 Mercuria Energy America, Inc.
CA1107 Midway Sunset Cogeneration Company
CA1239 Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc.
QC2128 Mr. Gas Limitee
CA1302 Naftex Operating Company
ON2324 Nature Fresh Farms Inc.
CA1672 NextEra Energy Marketing LLC
QC2107 NGL Supply Co. Ltd.
CA1191 Northern California Power Agency
CA1138 NRG Power Marketing LLC
ON2304 Ontario Power Generation Inc.
ON2294 P38 Energy Inc.
CA1046 Pacific Gas and Electric Company
CA2046 Pacific Gas and Electric Company
CA1034 PacifiCorp
CA2106 PBF Energy Western Region LLC
ON2345 Pembina Infrastructure and Logistics LP
CA1410 petro diamond incorporated
CA1279 Phillips 66 Company
CA1595 Pixley Cogen Partners, LLC
ON2190 Plains Midstream Canada ULC
CA1505 Powerex Corp.
ON2348 Primemax Energy Inc.
QC2663 propane plus inc
QC1960 Révolution VSC LP
CA1204 Rio Tinto Minerals Inc.
CA1834 River City Petroleum
CA1102 Royal Bank of Canada
CA1163 Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
CA1085 San Diego Gas & Electric Company
CA1760 San Diego Gas and Electric Company
CA1011 San Joaquin Refining Company, Inc.
QC2568 Sanimax LOM Inc.
CA2175 Sempra Gas & Power Marketing, LLC
CA1366 Seneca Resources Corporation
CA2358 Sentinel Peak Resources California, LLC
CA1251 Shell Energy North America (US), L.P.
CA1757 Shiralian Enterprises
CA1054 Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc.
CA1031 Silicon Valley Power (SVP), City of Santa Clara
CA1029 Southern California Edison Company
CA1170 Southern California Gas Company
CA1674 Southwest Gas Corporation
CA1804 Stan Boyett & Son, Inc.
CA1921 Statkraft US LLC
ON2313 Sun Gro Farms Inc.
ON2151 Suncor Energy Products Partnership
QC1873 Superior Gas Liquids Partnership
ON2267 Superior Plus LP
QC1486 tembec
CA1165 Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company LLC
ON2299 The Corporation of the City of Kingston
ON2381 The Corporation of the City of Kitchener
CA1888 The Soco Group, Inc
ON2220 TransCanada PipeLines Limited
CA1216 Turlock Irrigation District
ON2165 Union Gas Limited
CA1419 Union Pacific Railroad Company
CA1635 Valero Marketing and Supply Company
CA1135 Vitol Inc.
ON2514 W. O. Stinson & Son Limited
CA1229 Walnut Creek Energy, LLC
CA2056 Wild Goose Storage, LLC

Explanatory Notes: Qualified Bid Summary Statistics

Current Auction

Term Definition
Total Allowances Available for Sale Total allowances available, by vintage, for purchase in the Current Auction, including allowances consigned by consigning entities and allowances offered for sale by the State of California, the Province of Ontario, and the Province of Québec.
Total Allowances Sold at Auction Total allowances purchased, by vintage, in the Current Auction in metric tons.
Total Qualified Bids Divided by Total Allowances Available for Sale Total number of allowances (all vintages) included in all the qualified bids for the Current Auction allowances (regardless of bid price) divided by the total number of Current Auction allowances available in the auction.
Proportion of Allowances Purchased by Compliance Entities The total number of Current Auction allowances (by vintage) purchased in the Current Auction by Compliance Entities divided by the total number of Current Auction allowances sold in the Current Auction. A Compliance Entity is a Covered Entity or Opt-in Covered Entity as defined in California’s Cap-and-Trade Regulation, a Capped Participant as defined in Ontario’s Cap-and-Trade Regulation, or an Emitter as defined in Québec’s Cap-and-Trade Regulation.
Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) The HHI is a measure of the concentration of allowances purchased by winning bidders relative to the total sale of Current Auction allowances (regardless of vintage) in the auction. The percentage of allowances purchased by each winning bidder is squared and then summed across all winning bidders. The HHI can range up to 10,000, representing 100% of the current vintage allowances purchased by a single bidder (i.e., 100 × 100 = 10,000).
Qualified Bid Price Summary Statistics Statistics are calculated from all the qualified bids for the Current Auction allowances (regardless of bid price). All price statistics are shown in USD and CAD.
Qualified Bids The bids that remain after a qualified bidder’s submitted bids have been evaluated and reduced to meet all bidding limitations.
Auction Reserve Price The minimum acceptable auction bid price for Current Auction allowances shown in both USD and CAD per metric ton.
Settlement Price The Current Auction allowance price that resulted from the auction, in USD and CAD per metric ton.
Maximum Price Highest qualified bid price.
Minimum Price Lowest qualified bid price.
Mean Price Average qualified bid price calculated as the sum of the qualified bid prices times the bid allowances at each qualified bid price divided by the sum of all qualified bid allowances.
Median Price The price per metric ton calculated so that 50% of the qualified bid prices fall above and 50% fall below the median bid price.
Median Allowance Price The price per metric ton calculated so that 50% of the qualified bid allowances fall above and 50% fall below the median allowance price.
Auction Exchange Rate (USD to CAD FX Rate) The exchange rate in effect for the joint auction that is set the business day prior to the joint auction as the most recently available daily average exchange rate for USD and CAD as published by the Bank of Canada the day before the joint auction.

Advance Auction

The statistics presented in the report for the Advance Auction are computed in the same manner as the statistics computed for the Current Auction. No allowances are consigned by consigning entities to the Advance Auction.