Letter to OMB

Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 July 11, 2013

Chad Whiteman

Department of Energy Desk Officer

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

Washington, DC 20503

SUBJECT: Use of Evaluation of the Financial Reporting System, Form EIA-28, approved under OMB number 1905-0149, to conduct focus groups for the Form EIA-28, “Financial Reporting System.”

Dear Mr. Whiteman:

The Financial Reporting System, Form EIA–28 collects data used to analyze the energy industry’s competitive environment as well as energy industry resource development, supply distribution, and profitability issues. The Evaluation of the Financial Reporting System, Form EIA-28, is a request to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of this existing data collection to inform a future redesign of the EIA-28. This future redesign will measure upstream oil and gas costs for exploration and production for U.S. companies’ foreign and domestic operations.

Background: In support of the Evaluation of the Financial Reporting System, Form EIA-28, the Office of Oil, Gas and Coal Supply Statistics (OGCSS) has requested EIA’s survey methodologists to facilitate in conducting a series of focus groups with data users. The purpose of these focus groups is to identify the policy goals and data needs of these stakeholders with respect to the collection and measurement of upstream oil and gas costs. EIA seeks:

• To better understand how upstream oil and gas costs previously collected on the EIA-28 are understood and used by these data users, and to identify any other potential data sources data users employ;

• To learn more about how data users define exploration, development and production costs;

• And, to understand the data users’ need for additional data to place these costs in context needed for analysis.

Proposed Focus Groups: EIA plans to conduct up to four focus groups with ten EIA-28 data users participating in each focus group. EIA plans to hold these meetings from August to October of 2013 in Washington, DC, and by WebEx Webinar for respondents who are unable to travel.

EIA may use the information collected from these stakeholder meetings to inform the future redesign of the EIA-28 form. Specifically, the information collected may be used to update the proposed wording for data requests and instructions in order to retrieve more accurate and uniform reporting of the data from respondents.

Burden: Each focus group will be no more than two hours. Total burden across all interviews is estimated to be up to 20 hours.

Costs for respondents is estimated to be $5465.60 ($68.32 * 8 hours * 10 respondents). Costs for EIA is estimated to be $2186.24 ($68.32 * 8 hours * 4 persons from EIA). Total costs are estimated to be $ 7651.84.

EIA will provide OMB with the results of these tests in the annual summary of generic clearances. Attached is the draft focus group topic guide, which will be used during these focus groups, the current EIA-28 form, and the completed OMB template.

For questions on the focus groups, please contact Renee Miller (202) 586-6070.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Brown

Director

Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration

U.S. Energy Information Administration

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