TransCanada filed plans Friday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an open season, that period in which people with gas to ship on a pipeline can make bids on space. If FERC approves the plans, an open season would run May 1 to July 31.

Plenty of folks are watching to see what level of interest the plans draw from the North Slope's three major natural gas producers - Exxon Mobil, which is working with TransCanada to design the project; and BP and ConocoPhillips, which are pursuing a separate but similar pipeline and hope to hold an open season a little later this year.

The federal commission will take public comment on TransCanada's filing soon, and is holding a teleconferenced workshop Feb. 11 to explain how people can weigh in on that and on Denali's future filing.

They're not going to be talking about the filing itself, nor TransCanada's plans, but offering a roadmap through the bureaucratic procedures to comment.

The public comment period is a feature special to an Alaska natural gas project, per the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act passed in Congress in 2004. It's also unique that the public gets a chance to pour through the open season plans. Usually, those are confidential.

The workshop runs from 1 p.m. to about 4 p.m.

If you're interested, here's a link to FERC's Web site and the public notice, with call-in number.