Data sources - Appendix B - Natural Gas Industry

Natural Gas Monthly, April, 2002

The data in this publication are taken from survey reports authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Information Administration (EIA) and by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The EIA is the independent statistical and analytical agency within the DOE. The FERC is an independent regulatory commission within the DOE which has jurisdiction primarily in the regulation of electric utilities and the interstate natural gas industry. The EIA conducts and processes some of the surveys authorized by the FERC. Data are collected from two annual surveys and five monthly surveys.

The annual report is the Form EIA-176, a mandatory survey of all companies that deliver natural gas to consumers or that transport gas across State lines.

The monthly reports include two surveys of the natural gas industry, two surveys of the electric utility industry, and a voluntary survey completed by energy or conservation agencies in the gas producing States. The natural gas industry survey is the Form EIA-191 filed by companies that operate underground storage facilities, and the Form EIA-857 is filed by a sample of companies that deliver natural gas to consumers. The electric utility industry surveys are the Form EIA-759 filed by all generating electric utilities and the Form FERC-423 filed by fossil-fueled plants. Responses to these four monthly surveys are mandatory.

A description of the survey respondents, reporting requirements, and processing and editing of the data is given on the following pages for each of the surveys.

Form EIA-176, "Annual Report of Natural and Supplemental Gas Supply and Disposition"

Survey Design

The original version of Form EIA-176 was approved in 1980 with a mandatory response requirement. Prior to 1980, published data were based on voluntary responses to Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior predecessor Forms BOM-6-1340-A and BOM-6-1341-A of the same title.

In 1982, the scope of the revised ETA-176 survey was expanded to collect the number of electric utility consumers in each State, volumes of gas transported to industrial and electric utility consumers, detailed information on volumes transported across State borders by the respondent for others and for the responding company, and detailed information on other disposition. These changes were incorporated to provide more complete survey information with a minimal change in respondent burden. The 1982 version of the Form EIA-176 continues to be the basis for the current version of this form.

In 1988, the Form EIA-176 was revised to include data collection for deliveries of natural gas to commercial and industrial consumers for the account of others.

In 1990, the Form EIA-176 was revised to include more detailed information for gas withdrawn from storage facilities, gas added to storage facilities, deliveries of company-owned natural gas and natural gas transported for the account of others. The revised form was approved for use beginning with report year 1990.

Upon the Office of Management and Budget's approval in 1993, the Form EIA-176 was again revised. All deliveries to consumers were categorized as firm or interruptible. Commercial and industrial consumers were categorized as nonutility power producers or as those excluding nonutility power producers.

Approval of the Form EIA-176 for use through 1999 was received in 1996 from OMB. The form was modified as outlined in the "Change in Definition of Consumption Sector" below.

After being approved by the OMB in 1999, the Form EIA-176 was revised to: (1) change the filing date from April 1 following the end of the report year to March 1. following the end of the report year, (2) remove the requirement to distinguish between firm and interruptible deliveries to consumers; and (3) remove the requirement to distinguish between gas volumes delivered to commercial and industrial consumers having nonutility generation of electricity from those not generating electricity.

Data reported on this form are no longer considered proprietary. Response to the form continues to be mandatory.

Survey Universe and Response Statistics

The Form EIA-176 is mailed to all identified interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline companies, investor and municipally owned natural gas distributors, underground natural gas storage operators, synthetic natural gas plant operators, and field, well, or processing plant operators that deliver natural gas directly to consumers (including their own industrial facilities) and/or that transport gas to, across, or from a State border through field or gathering facilities.

Each company and its parent company or subsidiaries were required to file if they met the survey specifications. The original mailing in 2000 for report year 1999 totaled 1,872 questionnaire packages. To this original mailing, 8 names were added and 18 were deleted as a result of the survey processing. Additions were the result of comparisons of the mailing list to other survey mailing lists. Deletions resulted from post office returns and determinations that companies were out of business, sold, or not within the scope of the survey. After all updates, the survey universe was 1,847 responses from approximately 1,400 companies.