Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY	OMB No. 1905-0175
	ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION	Expiration Date: 12/31/2020
	Washington, DC 20585	Burden: 3.5 Hours

MONTHLY REPORT OF NATURAL GAS PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES TO CONSUMERS

FORM EIA-857

INSTRUCTIONS

PURPOSE

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form EIA-857, “Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers,” is designed to collect data on the quantity and cost of natural gas delivered to distribution systems and the quantity and revenue of natural gas delivered to end-use consumers by market sector, on a monthly basis by state. The data appear in the EIA publications Monthly Energy Review, Natural Gas Annual, and Natural Gas Monthly.

WHO MUST REPORT

Form EIA-857 is mandatory under 15 U.S.C. §772 and must be completed by companies that deliver natural gas to a consumer. These companies were statistically selected by EIA from a list of all companies in the United States that deliver natural gas to consumers, including pipeline companies that serve consumers directly. The selection provides a representative sample of natural gas deliveries in the various states and the District of Columbia.

Respondents that were selected to report in more than one state must submit a separate report for each state. A unique identification number has been provided for each state. Respondents should only report for the states in which they were selected, even if they serve consumers in other states.

WHEN TO REPORT

Form EIA-857 must be filed with EIA on or before the 30th calendar day after the end of the report month. When the 30th day falls on a weekend or national holiday, the reports must be filed by the next business day.

HOW TO REPORT

Instructions on where to report via secure file transfer are printed below and on Part 2 of Form EIA-857.

Secure File Transfer: You can file through the Secure File Transfer System. The secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) is a secure, encrypted method to send information electronically. All information is protected by 128-bit encryption to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of transmitted data. You can access the Secure File Transfer System at: https://signon.eia.doe.gov/upload/noticeoog.jsp.

COPIES OF THE SURVEY FORM AND INSTRUCTIONS

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

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

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

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Complete only those parts and data elements applicable to your operations. Leave all other spaces blank. Do not enter data in the shaded areas or spaces.

Information reported is intended to represent gas physically received or delivered during the report month.

All purchase and delivery transactions should be reported when and where the gas physically enters or leaves your company’s system.

Negative values are not acceptable.

Resubmissions of reports are not required unless actual or corrected data vary more than plus (+) or minus (-) 4% from the data previously reported. This benchmark should also be applied to prior period adjustments, which should be filed as resubmissions for the months when the adjustments were made. If company records do not permit allocation of adjustments to the appropriate months, the adjustments should be reported in the comments section.

All respondents should review forms prior to submission. Use the comments section on the form to describe or list data anomalies, changes in business organization, changes in status of business operation, or any other pertinent information that may affect the processing of your Form EIA- 857.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1: RESPONDENT IDENTIFICATION

Please provide up-to-date company information.

EIA ID Number: Enter 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. If an identification number has not been assigned, leave the space blank and contact EIA at (877) 800-5261. EIA will assign a number.

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

Company Name: Enter your company name.

Contact Information: Enter your current contact information.

Prior period adjustments: If any information provided in lines 1 through 13 include prior-period adjustments, check “Yes.” Adjustments to prior periods, including billing adjustments, should generally be excluded from the current report month. They should be submitted as revisions to prior months if they result in changes to previously reported data by more than plus (+) or minus (-) 4%, per the revision policy under general instructions. Adjustments should not be subtracted from other lines. They should be reflected in resubmissions of earlier data; accordingly, no negative numbers should be reported.

PART 2: SUBMISSION INFORMATION

This section provides information on how to submit your completed Form EIA-857 via Secure File Transfer.

Part 3: NATURAL GAS PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES BASED ON CALENDAR MONTH RECORDS

Purchased Gas Received in Distribution Service Area (Citygate) (line 1.0):

Report the total volume and cost, including taxes, of purchased gas received in your distribution service area during the month. If your suppliers do not bill on a calendar month basis, base your report on the billing periods most nearly matching the designated report month. Volumes should represent all gas physically received for sale and delivery to consumers, whether purchased from pipeline companies, marketers, brokers, producers, or other sources, or exchange gas, or company-owned gas received from storage.

Costs should represent the total cost of those volumes, including any and all demand charges, commodity charges, monthly minimum bill and/or take-or-pay charges, surcharges, refunds in the form of reduced charges, charges incidental to underground storage of company-owned gas, and transportation charges paid or incurred to deliver gas to your distribution service area.

Net gains or losses associated with financial hedges should be included for the report month in which the gas associated with the hedge is received.

Only report receipts of gas in your distribution service area during the report period and for which full delivered costs, including any separately stated transportation cost, are regularly recorded. The data collected are not intended to represent, and will not be portrayed as representing, the total cost of gas sold during the report month.

Note: Pipeline companies are not required to report citygate purchases.

Respondents with a contiguous distribution service area extending across states lines should report purchased gas information only on the reports for the states in which the gas was actually received.

Gas purchased for storage, including for storage in your own storage reservoirs within your distribution service area, should be excluded at the time of its purchase. The volumes and associated costs (including net gains or losses from financial hedges) should be reported when the gas is withdrawn from storage and transported to the distribution area for sale and delivery to consumers. The value then should include transportation and storage costs as well as the commodity cost.

Lump sum refunds received or lump sum minimum take, take-or-pay, or similar charges paid for prior-period receipts should be excluded from Part 3 but described in the comments section. Only total amounts received or paid for need to be reported in the comments section. Prior reports do not need to be revised to reflect such sums.

Total Operational Sendout to Consumers of Gas Owned and Not Owned (Sendout) (line 2.0):

Report total operational system sendout delivered to consumers for the report month. Include all volumes received at the citygate or withdrawn from storage for customer use, including company and distribution use. Exclude all volumes delivered to storage facilities and pipelines. The sum of deliveries to the sectors reported on lines 3.0 through 13.0 is not required to match the system sendout because sector breakouts may not strictly coincide with the calendar month. The volumes reported in line 2.0 should be greater than or equal to the volumes in line 1.0, citygate purchases.

Note: Pipeline companies are not required to report total sendout.

Natural gas used in your operations (line 2.1): Report all volumes sent out and consumed or lost by the company during the course of normal operations. Include use for space heat (broken out on line 12.1 on Form EIA-176), pipeline distribution or storage compressor use (line 12.3 on Form EIA-176), and any line loss (line 17.0 on Form EIA-176) resulting from leaks, damage, accidents, migration and/or blow down within the report state. Report your best estimate. Interdepartmental volumes used to fuel company-owned generation facilities or company-owned fleets should be classified as electric power or vehicle fuel, respectively.

Note: Pipeline companies are not required to report company use.

PART 4: NATURAL GAS DELIVERIES TO CONSUMERS BASED ON FINANCIAL RECORDS (lines 3.0 through 13.0)

Flexibility is allowed to accommodate differences in the billing schedules and accounting practices of respondents. Data may be reported based on the supplier’s monthly billing period and on the respondent’s scheduled consumer billing cycles. The timing and periods covered for purchases and deliveries to consumers need not, and would not normally be expected to, coincide. If necessary, in order to file by the due date, complete the report based upon estimates. Estimated data items should be noted in the comments section.

Report the number of customers, volumes sold and delivered directly to end-use consumers, and the revenues received. Report separately for natural gas that you own (items 3.0 through 7.0) and for natural gas that you do not own (items 8.0 through 12.0). For line 13.0, sum all lines to represent the total of all volumes delivered for consumption to all customers, including volumes the company used.

Number of Customers: The number of customers should reflect the average number of customers in each end-use category for the report month. Report the number of consumers attached to your system during each month. Count each dwelling, building, plant, establishment, or location as a separate customer, for the purpose of this report, whether or not centrally billed and whether or not provided with more than one type of service (e.g., firm and interruptible). Customers that switch from sales to transportation customers during the report month should be reported in the category in which they spent the majority of days during the report month to avoid double-counting.

Revenue: Revenue should include gross revenues, all system charges or minimum bill amounts, commodity charges, taxes, surcharges, adjustments, and other charges billed for the gas delivered. Amounts refunded in the form of reduced bills should be reflected. Refunds to consumers in the form of check refunds should be excluded, but the total amount refunded should be reported in the comments section. For customers on level payment, deferred payment, or similar plans, amounts ultimately to be paid for the volumes delivered should be reported. If your regularly maintained records do not include all charges for which customers are billed, for example local sales taxes, explain the type of charges excluded in the comments section. Net gains or losses associated with financial hedges should be included for the report month in which the gas associated with the hedge is delivered. All revenue values should be rounded to the nearest whole number in dollars.

Note: Pipeline companies are not required to provide revenue data for deliveries of gas that they do not own.

Classification of Consumers

Consumers should be classified by category using the definitions provided below.

The size of an operation does not affect consumer classification. Large commercial operations should be classified as commercial, not industrial. Likewise, small industrial operations should be classified as industrial, not commercial.

Multiple-use or combination consumers such as apartment buildings with commercial establishments, retail stores with attached dwellings, or industrial plants with on-site office space or buildings served from a common meter should be classified based on the predominate volumetric usage. If certain categories, e.g., residential and commercial, are carried on a combined basis in your accounts, please provide your best estimate of the information for each category separately.

Deliveries to end-use consumers should not include volumes for resale and should be reported based on the following definitions:

Residential (lines 3.0 and 8.0): An energy-consuming sector that consists of living quarters for private households. Common uses of energy associated with this sector include space heating, water heating, air conditioning, lighting, refrigeration, and cooking. The residential sector includes mobile homes and apartment buildings (whether privately owned or publicly subsidized) and excludes institutional living quarters.

Commercial (lines 4.0 and 9.0): An energy-consuming sector that consists of service-providing facilities and equipment of: businesses; federal, state, and local governments; and other private and public organizations, such as religious, social, or fraternal groups. The commercial sector includes institutional living quarters. It also includes sewage treatment facilities. Common uses of energy associated with this sector include space heating, water heating, air conditioning, lighting, refrigeration, cooking, and running a wide variety of other equipment. Note: This sector includes generators that produce electricity and/or useful thermal output primarily to support the activities of the above-mentioned commercial establishments. Vehicle fuel and distribution company use are not included in commercial but should be recorded separately in lines 2.1, 4.1, and 9.1.

Vehicle Fuel (lines 4.1 and 9.1): An energy-consuming sector that consists of natural gas, either compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG) that is consumed by motor vehicles either in company fleets or for retail sales. Interdepartmental volumes used to fuel company-owned fleets should be classified as vehicle fuel. Report volumes in thousand cubic feet. CNG may be reported in thousand cubic feet (Mcf) or dekatherm conversion units.

Industrial (lines 5.0 and 10.0): An energy-consuming sector that consists of all facilities and equipment used for producing, processing, or assembling goods. The industrial sector encompasses the following types of activity: manufacturing (North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes 31-33); agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting (NAICS 11); mining, including oil and gas extraction (NAICS 21); and construction (NAICS 23). Overall energy use in this sector is largely for process heat and powering machinery, with lesser amounts used for facility heating. Natural gas is also used as raw material inputs to manufactured products. Note: This sector includes generators that produce electricity and/or useful thermal output primarily to support the above-mentioned industrial activities.

Electric power (lines 6.0 and 11.0): An energy-consuming sector that consists of electricity-only plants and combined heat and power (CHP) plants, whose primary business is to sell electricity, or electricity and heat, to the public – i.e., NAICS 22 plants. Includes volumes consumed in company-owned generation facilities. Interdepartmental volumes used to fuel company-owned generation facilities should be classified as electric power.

Other (lines 7.0 and 12.0) (not included in above categories; specify type): Use this category if you are uncertain of the correct category from among residential, commercial, industrial, and electric power. Please use the space provided to specify the type of delivery you report here.

Total of all deliveries (line 13.0): This category consists of the sum of all deliveries in lines 3.0 through 12.0. This total is not expected to match Total Operational Sendout in line 2.0 because of differences between calendar month records and financial records that may be kept according to billing cycles.

How to Report on Type of Consumer on Form EIA-857

Master-metered apartments Residential

Mobile homes Residential

Multi-family dwellings, individually metered Residential

Single-family dwellings Residential

Churches and hospitals Commercial

Government (local, state, and federal) agencies Commercial

Hotels Commercial

Non-manufacturing military installations Commercial

Restaurants Commercial

Retail stores Commercial

Schools and universities Commercial

Wholesale stores Commercial

Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries Industrial Mining (including oil and gas extraction) Industrial

Manufacturing Industrial

Regulated electric utilities Electric Power

Non-regulated electricity generators Electric Power

Heat content of gas delivered to customers (Btu per cubic foot) (line 14.0): The average heat content (Btu) should be computed by summing the total Btu delivered each month (volume delivered directly to consumers multiplied by average Btu content per unit volume) and then dividing by the total volume delivered directly to consumers during that month. The average Btu content for each month should be based on whether billing was on a therm basis or a decatherm basis. The value for heat content is expected to be in the range of 900 to 1,200 Btu per cubic foot.

If billing was on a volumetric basis and your company did not measure the Btu content, contact your supplier for the information. If the Btu content was not measured at any point, enter "U" for Unknown.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Information reported on Form EIA-857 will be protected and not disclosed to the public to the extent that it satisfies the criteria for exemption under 5 U.S.C. §552. DOE regulations in accordance with 10 C.F.R. §1004.11 and 18 U.S.C. §1905 ensure EIA will protect your exempted information.

15 U.S.C. §761 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); or 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-857 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.

SANCTIONS

The filing of Form EIA-857 is mandatory under 15 U.S.C. §772. Failure to respond may result in fines and other penalties under 15 U.S.C. §797. This may include a civil penalty of not more than $2,750 each day for each violation, or a fine of not more than $5,000 each day 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.

FILING FORMS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ESTIMATED REPORTING BURDEN

Respondents are not required to file or reply to any federal collection of information unless it has a valid OMB control number. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 3.5 hours per response, including the time of 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: U.S. 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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