Monthly and Annual Underground Natural Gas Storage Report

	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY	Form Approved
	ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION	OMB No. 1905-0175
	Washington, DC 20585	Expiration Date: xx/xx/xxxx

MONTHLY UNDERGROUND GAS STORAGE REPORT

FORM EIA-191

INSTRUCTIONS

PURPOSE

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form EIA-191, “Monthly Underground Gas Storage Report,” provides data on the operations of all active underground storage facilities. Data are collected pursuant to the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) Act of 1974, Public Law 93-275. This report is mandatory under the FEA Act. The data appear in the EIA publications Monthly Energy Review, Natural Gas Annual, and Natural Gas Monthly.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

All companies that operate underground natural gas storage fields in the United States must provide the information requested.

WHEN TO REPORT

Information requested must be provided within 20 days after the end of the report month. Twelve reports are required per calendar year.

If additional fields are acquired, or storage activities begin in a new facility during the year, you are required to enter their field characteristics for the month when initial activity begins.

COPIES OF THE SURVEY FORM AND INSTRUCTIONS

Copies in portable document format (PDF) and spreadsheet format (XLS) are available on EIA's website at:

www.eia.gov/oil_gas/natural_gas/survey_forms/nat_survey_forms.html

You can also access the materials by following these steps:

1. Go to EIA's website at www.eia.gov

   1. Click on the Natural Gas category (this takes you to EIA's natural gas information page).

   2. Click on the Survey Forms link located in the reference box in the lower right corner.

2. Select the materials you want.

Files must be saved to your personal computer. Data cannot be entered interactively on the website.

HOW TO REPORT

Instructions on where to report via mail, fax, secure file transfer, or email are printed on Part 2 of Form EIA-191.

SECURE FILE TRANSFER

Forms may be submitted through the Secure File Transfer System. The secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) is an industry standard method to send information over the web using a secure, encrypted process. All information is protected by 128-bit encryption to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of transmitted data. The Secure File Transfer System may be accessed through the following web address: https://signon.eia.doe.gov/upload/noticeoog.jsp.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

All volumes should be reported in thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Negative values should not be filed on any part of the Form EIA-191.

Provide data for all fields your company operates. You may copy additional forms or download additional electronic files when submitting data for more than 2 fields.

Reporting of preliminary or estimated data is encouraged if necessary to meet the due date. Indicate when revised reports are submitted by checking the box. A revised report is required if actual or corrected data vary more than plus or minus 4 percent from the data previously reported as estimated data.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1: RESPONDENT IDENTIFICATION DATA

Please provide up-to-date company information.

EIA ID Number: Complete the 10-digit identification number assigned by EIA. Companies operating in more than one State should note that a unique number has been assigned for operations in each State. In the event an identification number has not been assigned, leave the space blank and contact the EIA at (877) 800-5261, a number will then be assigned by the EIA.

Resubmission: Check the box if report is a revised report. If the report is an original, leave this space blank.

Company Name: Enter the company name.

Contact Information: Enter the current contact information.

PART 2: SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Provides information for the four options available for submitting your completed Form EIA-191: (1) mail; (2) email; (3) fax; and (4) Secure File Transfer.

PART 3: FIELD CHARACTERISTICS

All information requested in this part of the form must be reported each time the form is submitted.

Information should be provided for your field/s as defined below in the definitions. Report all volumes in Thousand Cubic Feet (Mcf), 14.73 psia-60^o F, as of 9:00 a.m. on the last day of the report month.

For Type of Facility, check the box corresponding to one of the following: depleted gas field, aquifer, salt dome, or other facility. If “other” is reported, please provide additional information regarding the type of facility in the comments section.

For Field Status, check the box corresponding to either active or inactive. A facility is considered “inactive” if it has not had any injection for at least the prior twelve months and does not contain volumes of working gas or is in the process of abandonment or depletion.

PART 4: MONTHLY GAS STORAGE DATA

All information requested in this part of the form must be reported each time the form is submitted.

Information should be provided for your field/s as defined below in the definitions. Report all volumes in Thousand Cubic Feet (Mcf), 14.73 psia-60^o F, as of 9:00 a.m. Central Standard Time on the last day of the report month.

In most cases, net injections or withdrawals should correspond to the difference between total gas volume for the current and prior report period. Storage compressor use volumes should be included in injections and withdrawals.

Comments: Use the space provided to describe any unusual or substantially different aspects of your monthly operations that affect the data reported.

DEFINITIONS

Base (cushion) gas:  The volume of gas needed to maintain adequate reservoir pressures and deliverability rates throughout the withdrawal season. Base gas usually is not withdrawn, and remains in the reservoir. All native gas is included in the base gas volume.

Injections: The volume of gas injected into storage reservoirs during the report month.

Maximum Deliverability: The maximum rate (Mcf/day) natural gas can be withdrawn (or delivered) from a storage field when filled to maximum capacity.

Total Gas in Storage: The sum of base gas plus working gas.

Total Storage Field Capacity: The maximum volume of natural gas (including both base and working gas) that can be stored in an underground storage facility in accordance with its design specifications, the physical characteristics of the reservoir, installed compression equipment, and operating procedures particular to the site.

Withdrawals: The volume of gas withdrawn from storage reservoirs during the report month.

Working (top storage) gas:  The volume of natural gas in an underground storage facility available to be withdrawn, not including base gas. Working gas may or may not be completely withdrawn during any particular withdrawal season.

SANCTIONS

The timely submission of Form EIA-191 by those required to report is mandatory under Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) Act of 1974, (Public Law 93-275), as amended. Failure to

respond may result in a civil penalty of not more than $2,750 a day for each violation, or a fine of not more than $5,000 for each willful violation. The government may bring a civil action to prohibit reporting violations which may result in a temporary restraining order or a preliminary or permanent injunction without bond. In such civil action, the court may also issue mandatory injunctions commanding any person to comply with these reporting requirements.

PROVISIONS REGARDINGCONFIDENTIALITY

Information collected in Parts 1, 2, and 3, as well as Base Gas data, on Form EIA-191 will be considered public information, and may be publicly released in company or individually identifiable form, and will not be protected from disclosure in identifiable form. Information collected in Part 4 (including Working Gas and Total Gas in Storage data but excluding Base Gas), however, will be protected and not disclosed to the public to the extent that it satisfies the criteria for exemption under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. §552, the DOE regulations, 10 C.F.R. §1004.11, implementing the FOIA, and the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. §1905.

The Federal Energy Administration Act requires EIA to provide company-specific data to other Federal agencies when requested for official use. The information reported on this form may also be made available, upon request, to another component of the Department of Energy (DOE); to any Committee of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, or other Federal agencies authorized by law to receive such information. A court of competent jurisdiction may obtain this information in response to an order. The information may be used for any nonstatistical purposes such as administrative, regulatory, law enforcement, or adjudicatory purposes.

Disclosure limitation procedures are not applied to the statistical data published from EIA-191 survey information. Thus, there may be some statistics that are based on data from fewer than three respondents, or that are dominated by data from one or two large respondents. In these cases, it may be possible for a knowledgeable person to estimate the information reported by a specific respondent.

FILING FORMS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ESTIMATED REPORTING BURDEN

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 2.6 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Energy Information Administration, Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration, EI-21, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585; and to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.

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