EIA-857 instructions 2021

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
Washington, DC 20585

OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 1/31/2024
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.

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.

WHO MUST REPORT
Form EIA-857 is mandatory under 15 U.S.C. §772(b) 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.

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.

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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-orpay, 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.

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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
Mobile homes
Multi-family dwellings, individually metered
Single-family dwellings
Churches and hospitals
Government (local, state, and federal) agencies
Hotels
Non-manufacturing military installations
Restaurants
Retail stores
Schools and universities
Wholesale stores
Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Mining (including oil and gas extraction)
Manufacturing
Regulated electric utilities
Non-regulated electricity generators

Residential
Residential
Residential
Residential
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Industrial
Industrial
Industrial
Electric Power
Electric Power

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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 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. EIA will protect your information in
accordance with its confidentiality and security policies and
procedures.
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); 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.

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
Form EIA-857 is mandatory under 15 U.S.C. §772(b). Failure to
respond may result in a civil penalty of not more than $10,821 each
day for each 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
EI-21,
1000
and
Statistical
Integration,
Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585; and to
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.

Disclosure limitation procedures are not applied to the statistical
data published from EIA-857 survey information. Thus, there may

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