549B Instruction Manual

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of the Secretary

Instruction Manual

Form 549B, Index of Customers

Form Approved

OMB No. 1902-0169 OMB Authorization Expiration Date:

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GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Purpose of data collection

Under the authority of the Natural Gas Act (15 USC 717), the Commission promulgated 18 CFR § 284.13(c); which states that each calendar quarter an interstate pipeline must file with the Commission an index of all of its firm transportation and storage customers under contract as of the first day of the calendar quarter. The pipeline must also post an electronic format of this information on its internet web site. The instructions herein will provide the format for the electronic dissemination of the data on the respondent's web site in a downloadable file, as well as for the electronic file submitted to the Commission.

2. Who must file

Each interstate pipeline regulated by the Commission that provides firm transportation or storage service under Subparts B or G of Part 284 of the Commission's regulations must file this information.

3. How / What to submit

The preferred method of submittal is electronic submission via eFiling. Information for eFiling can be found at: http://www.ferc.gov/docsfiling/efiling.asp

You may submit your data file on diskette or compact disk. Please add the respondent's name, as well as the name of the electronic file on the media label. The diskette or CD must be accompanied by a cover letter stating the content of the electronic filing. The cover letter must also include the subscription provided in 18 CFR § 385.2005(a). All data submitted will be considered non-confidential and will be made available to the public upon request. There is no paper format required for this data.

When filing a revision, be sure the report date, original/revised filing indicator, and the filename accurately reflect that the file is a revision.

4. When to submit

The web site posting date and Commission filing date for this information is the first business day after the start of each calendar quarter. The first day of the calendar quarters are January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year.

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5. Where to submit a paper filing

eFiling is the preferred method for submitting this filing. However; if you must submit in paper and media; address the filing to:

Form 549B

Office of the Secretary

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20426

Hand deliveries can be made to:

Office of the Secretary

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Room 1-A

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

Response to this collection of information is mandatory. The estimated public reporting burden for this collection of information is an average of 80 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the response. Interested persons may obtain information on the reporting requirements by contacting the following: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426, [Attention: Information Clearance Officer, Office of the Executive Director, email: [email protected], phone: (202) 502-8663, fax: (202) 273-0873] Please send comments concerning the collections of information and the associated burden estimate(s), to the contact listed above and to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C. 20503 [Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, phone (202) 395-0710, fax: (202) 395-7285]. Due to security concerns, comments should be sent electronically to the following e-mail address: [email protected]. Please reference the OMB control numbers identified above in your submission.

You shall not be penalized for failure to respond to this collection of information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB control number.

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File Format Information

1. The information required for this filing must be recorded in a "TAB" delimited format with the data ordered as specified in the Electronic Filing Format section of these instructions. The file and the media must be Windows compatible. An example of a "TAB" delimited file adhering to the prescribed electronic filing formats is also provided. There are two important instructions regarding "TAB" delimited files:

1. It is imperative the respondent realizes that the "TAB" characters are as important as the actual data coded onto the record. Without the correct "TAB" characters on the record to locate and distinguish data fields, the file cannot be processed. The respondent must be careful not to use a software program to create the “TAB” delimited records which converts the “TAB” characters into equivalent space characters (ASCII 0-decimal of 00 – hexadecimal).

2. If a data item is not applicable, the data item must be omitted, but the associated "TAB" character for that item must be recorded on the record. For example, let's assume a record consists of four data items: company name, report year, beginning balance, and ending balance.

Further, assume that the beginning balance field is to be left blank. Then, the structure of the reported record would be as follows:

XYZ Natural Gas Company<TAB>2011<TAB><TAB>123456

The double "TAB" characters denote a blank entry for the beginning balance data item in this record.

3. You must add a hard return to the end of each line of data.

2. Each logical record should be terminated by a carriage return (CR) character (ASCII character – 13 decimal, 0D – hexadecimal and line feed (LF) character (ASCII character 10 – decimal, 0A – hexadecimal).

3. All information required to be filed should be recorded in one file. The naming convention for this file is: "ICNNNNNNYYMM.TAB", where "I" is the file name indicator used for the Index of Customers filing, "CNNNNNN" is the seven-character FERC pipeline code for the respondent (see item 7.A. for information on the Pipeline ID), and "YYMM" is the two digit year and the two digit beginning month for each quarterly submittal. If it is

necessary to submit revised reports, the file names should be "ICNNNNNNYYMM.TA1", "ICNNNNNNYYMM.TA2", etc., where ".TA1" indicates the first revision, ".TA2" the second revision, etc. For any revised reports, "YYMM" must refer to the year and beginning month of

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the quarter to which the revisions apply. The file name should be included in the transmittal letter accompanying the respondent's filing.

4. The definitions, instructions, and record type formats for this electronic filing specify explicitly the data items to be reported and the sequence for recording each data item.

5. All fields must adhere to the following conventions for coding data on the electronic filing:

A. In accordance with 18 CFR § 284.4, all quantities must be reported in MMBtu. If the Commission has granted the respondent a waiver of this regulation, and the respondent reports data in Mcf, report these volumes measured at 14.73 psia and 60 degrees Fahrenheit rounded to the nearest Mcf. B. Do not include commas in reporting any numeric value.

6. Footnotes. Footnotes may be used to submit additional information about any data item(s) included in this report. A "Footnote" record is provided for this purpose.

7. Source of Codes.

A.ID - Use the FERC seven-character code for the respondent's

. An updated list of seven-character codes is

provided on the Commission’s web site at http://www.ferc.gov/ industries/gas/gen-info/reg-fil.asp.

2. If your pipeline is not listed, obtain a ID at Company

Registration, located at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/companyreg.asp.

2. Rate Schedule - Report the respondent's own designation for the rate schedule being reported. This rate schedule name must be entered exactly as it is reported in the FERC Forms Nos. 2 (or 2-A) as approved in Order No. 581.

3. Shipper ID - Use the unique Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S®) Number assigned by the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation and accepted by the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) as the common code for the shipper.

4. Point Identification Code - Use the North American Energy Standards Board’s Location (LOC) data element as defined at NAESB WGQ Standard No. 0.4.4.

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