EIA-857 Instructions

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

EIA-857
MONTHLY REPORT OF NATURAL GAS PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES TO CONSUMERS
YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW
This report is mandatory under Title 15 U.S.C. §772(b). Failure to comply may result in criminal fines, civil penalties and other
sanctions as provided by Title 15 U.S.C. §797. Title 18 U.S.C. §1001 makes it a criminal offense for any person knowingly and
willingly to make to any Agency or Department of the United States any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements as to any
matter within its jurisdiction.
The Form EIA-857 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.

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.

RESPONSE DUE DATE
The 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 FILE A RESPONSE
To facilitate the processing of data, the use of EIA forms is required. The form can be downloaded in XLS format on the EIA
website, which can be accessed from http://www.eia.gov/survey/#eia-857.
Respondents must use the EIA’s Secure File Transfer system to submit their data. With this Internet-based option, EIA uses
security protocols to protect the information against unauthorized access during transmission. EIA does not accept email, fax,
or paper forms.
Data Submission Method (see next page for step-by-step instructions)
By Secure File Transfer: https://signon.eia.doe.gov/upload/noticeoog.jsp

QUESTIONS
Please contact the EIA Survey Support Team using the following communication methods:
By email:
By phone:

[email protected]
1-855-EIA-4USA (1-855-342-4872) [Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM E.T.]
EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

HOW TO USE EIA’S SECURE FILE TRANSFER
EIA is ensuring the security of your transactions by using the latest Internet security technology. The technology being used to
protect your data is encryption which is the scrambling of data into a code that is unreadable to anyone who does not have the
key that deciphers it. The secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) is a communications protocol designed to transfer this
encrypted information between computers over the internet. All information is protected by 128-bit encryption to maintain the
privacy and confidentiality of your data. The only thing you need to take advantage of strong encryption technology is a secure
browser, one that supports 128-bit encryption.
1.

Go to the EIA Secure File Transfer system located at https://signon.eia.doe.gov/upload/noticeoog.jsp

2.

Read the Agreement and then click the Accept button.

3.

Enter your name, company name, phone number and email address into the boxes provided. Note that the email
address is required so that we can send you a confirmation of the receipt of your data.

4.

Click on the Choose Files button to navigate to your saved Excel file submission. Select the file to upload and click on
the Open button.

5.

If you are ready to submit your file, click on the green Submit File(s) button. Please be patient, it may take a few
minutes to upload your file. Do not close your browser during this upload. A confirmation page will be displayed with
a Submission Successful banner and indicate the names of the files you have transferred, a confirmation number and
the date and time of the transfer.

SANCTIONS
The timely submission of Form EIA-857 by those required to report is mandatory under 15 USC 772(b), as amended. Failure to
respond may result in a civil penalty of not more than $12,531 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.

REPORTING BURDEN
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 3.5 hours per response, including time for
reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining 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: Energy Information Administration, Statistical Methods and
Research, EI-21, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20585; and to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C. 20503.

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
EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

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.

SPECIFIC 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.

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 1-855-EIA-4USA (1-855-342-4872). 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.

EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

PART 2: SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Submission - Refer to the “How to File a Response” section for more details or method for submitting data.

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.

EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

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 EIA176), 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, 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 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.

EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

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 may include generators that produce electricity and/or useful thermal output
primarily to support the above-mentioned industrial activities, provided they are not indicated as NAICS code 22 facilities.
NAICS code 22 facilities must be reported in the electric sector.
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

Residential
Residential
Residential
Residential
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial

EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585
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

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 06/30/2024
Burden: 3.5 hours

Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Industrial
Industrial
Industrial
Electric Power
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.

EIA-857 Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to Consumers