82 FR 49797 - Agency Information Collection Extension

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Energy Information Administration

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 207 (October 27, 2017)

EIA has submitted an information collection request to OMB for extension under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection requests a three-year extension with changes of its Natural Gas Data Collection Program, under OMB Control No. 1905- 0175. The proposed collection will provide information on the supply and disposition of natural gas within the United States.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 207 (Friday, October 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49797-49798]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-23398]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

 Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of 
Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EIA has submitted an information collection request to OMB for 
extension under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. 
The information collection requests a three-year extension with changes 
of its Natural Gas Data Collection Program, under OMB Control No. 1905-
0175. The proposed collection will provide information on the supply 
and disposition of natural gas within the United States.

DATES: Comments regarding this information collection must be received 
on or before November 27, 2017. If you anticipate that you will be 
submitting comments, but find it difficult to do so within the period 
of time allowed by this notice, please advise the DOE Desk Officer at 
OMB of your intention to make a submission as soon as possible. The 
Desk Officer may be telephoned at 202-395-4718.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Chad S. Whiteman, DOE 
Desk Officer, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10102, 735 
17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Chad S [email protected]. and 
to Mr. Michael Kopalek, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration EI-25, 1000 Independence Ave. SW., 
Washington, DC 20585, [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to Michael Kopalek, 202-586-4001, [email protected], 
https://www.eia.gov/survey/notice/ngdownstreamforms2018.php.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB Control Number 1905-0175;
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program;
    The surveys covered by this information collection request include:
     Form EIA-176, Annual Report of Natural and Supplemental 
Gas Supply and Disposition
     Form EIA-191, Monthly Underground Gas Storage Report
     Form EIA-757, Natural Gas Processing Plant Survey
     Form EIA-857, Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and 
Deliveries to Consumers
     Form EIA-910, Monthly Natural Gas Marketer Survey
     Form EIA-912, Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage 
Report
    (3) Type of Request: Three-year extension with changes;
    (4) Purpose: The surveys included in the Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program Package collect information on natural gas 
underground storage, supply, processing, transmission, distribution, 
consumption by sector, and consumer prices. This information is used to 
support public policy analyses of the natural gas industry and 
estimates generated from data collected on these surveys. The 
statistics generated from these surveys are posted to the EIA Web site 
(http://www.eia.gov) and in various EIA products, including the Weekly 
Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR), Natural Gas Monthly (NGM), Natural 
Gas Annual (NGA), Monthly Energy Review (MER), Short-Term Energy 
Outlook (STEO), Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), and Annual Energy Review 
(AER). EIA requests a three-year extension of collection authority for 
each of the above-referenced surveys with changes to Forms EIA-176, 
EIA-191, EIA-757, EIA-910, and EIA-912.
    (4a) Proposed Changes to Information Collection:

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

    Form EIA-176 collects data on natural, synthetic, and other 
supplemental gas supplies, their disposition, and certain revenues by 
state. The changes include:
    a. Add a question in Part 3(B) to ask respondents if they have an 
alternative-fueled vehicle fleet and how many and what kind of vehicles 
make up the fleet. This information improves survey frame coverage and 
data accuracy reported on Form EIA-886, Annual Survey of Alternative 
Fueled Vehicles;
    b. A new section Part 3(E) asking local distribution companies to 
provide all the counties where they deliver natural gas for end-use 
consumption. This information enables EIA to estimate the approximate 
service territory for a local distribution company. EIA has received 
public inquiries about service territories associated with natural gas 
distributors and this information will be useful to EIA and the public 
for understanding this retail market sector.
    c. Addition of a question in Part 3(F) asking respondents for the 
names and zip codes of any aboveground liquefied (LNG) natural gas 
storage facilities that

[[Page 49798]]

are owned, operated, or provide services to a survey respondent. This 
enables EIA to facilitate collection of LNG data by operators and their 
locations;
    d. Discontinue collecting the costs associated with purchase gas 
received within the service area. EIA has the capability to estimate 
values for this activity using monthly data. Deleting this data element 
reduces respondent reporting burden and relieves EIA resources used to 
validate the information;
    e. Discontinue the collection of year-end natural gas pump price in 
Part 3 Item B4. EIA determined that this question had large variation 
in data quality and inconsistent reporting methodologies.
    f. Move Part 6 Line 12.4 (from the drop down menu selection) sub-
item 9096, ``Other Natural gas consumed in your operations: 
Vaporization/LNG Fuel,'' to make it a standalone line item as new Line 
12.4, called ``Vaporization/Liquefaction/LNG Fuel.'' The collection of 
``Other Natural Gas'' consumed in operations that was previously listed 
on Line 12.4 will be shown as a new Line 12.6 in Part 6 with the three 
other drop down choices (Utilities Use, Other, and Other Expenses) 
available to the user. In the past, many respondents have missed 
reporting this data element. The change is designed to improve the 
coverage and accuracy of respondents reporting this information and 
will assist EIA in its modeling and analysis; and
    g. Add a question in Part 6 Line 12.5, ``Vehicle fuel used in 
company fleet'' to collect information on fuel consumption by company 
vehicles. Based on cognitive testing of Form EIA-176 form, respondents 
were reporting natural gas vehicle fuel for their own company fleet as 
company use. This affects the accuracy of the vehicle fuel volumes and 
prices reported in Part 6 Items 10.5 and 11.5. Company consumption 
volumes do not have associated revenue and should not be included in 
10.5 and 11.5. Adding this question gives respondents a place on Form 
EIA-176 to report company-owned vehicle fuel volumes and improve the 
accuracy of vehicle fuel prices based on Part 6 Items 10.5 and 11.5.

Form EIA-191, Monthly Underground Gas Storage Report

    Form EIA-191 collects data on the operations of all active 
underground storage facilities. EIA is making the following changes to 
Form EIA-191:
    a. Remove ``Other'' as a response option under ``type of facility'' 
question in Part 3 of the survey form. Respondents have not utilized 
this category for classifying their facilities. This open ended 
facility category did not provide its intended utility and as a result 
EIA is deleting it.

Form EIA-757, Natural Gas Processing Plant Survey

    Form EIA-757 collects information on the capacity, status, and 
operations of natural gas processing plants, and monitors their 
constraints to natural gas supplies during catastrophic events, such as 
hurricanes. Schedule A of Form EIA-757 is used to collect data every 
three years. Schedule A collects baseline operating and capacity 
information from all respondents. Schedule A was used to collect 
information in 2015 and the next planned collection for Schedule A is 
2018. Schedule B is activated as needed and collects data from a sample 
of respondents in affected areas as needed. Schedule B was last 
activated in 2012 when Hurricane Isaac damaged energy supply 
infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. A sample of approximately 20 
plants reported in 2012 during that supply disruption. EIA is 
continuing the collection of the same data elements on Form EIA-757 
Schedules A and B in their present form with two protocol changes:
    a. Collect Schedule A data for new natural gas processing plants 
that opened and began operations during the current three-year data 
collection cycles. This minor protocol change allows EIA to maintain a 
current frame at all times rather than updating the survey frame every 
three years when a new data collection cycle begins;
    b. Collect ``processing throughput capacity'' information in 
Schedule A on an annual basis. This allows EIA to track recent changes 
in natural gas processing plant capacities, a key piece of information 
needed for using Form EIA-757 Schedule B Emergency Activation portion 
of the survey during a natural disaster or similar crisis situation.

Form EIA-912 Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report

    Form EIA-912 collects information on weekly inventories of natural 
gas in underground storage facilities. This is one change to Form EIA-
912 to include an additional geographic data element for Inventory of 
Working Gas in Storage as described below:
    a. Divide the ``South Central'' reporting region into ``South 
Central Salt'' and ``South Central Nonsalt.'' Currently EIA categorizes 
storage operators as either Salt facilities or Nonsalt facilities and 
allocates their volumes entirely to that region. This change would 
require respondents to allocate volumes in their reported data between 
Salt facilities and Nonsalt facilities in order to improve the accuracy 
of EIA's published estimates on underground storage. For example, under 
the current methodology, volumes reported by a respondent with majority 
salt storage would be allocated entirely to the ``South Central Salt'' 
region, even if nearly half of their volumes were stored in nonsalt 
facilities. Currently, operators with more than 15 billion cubic feet 
of storage capacity in the South Central region report volumes 
separately between Salt facilities or Nonsalt facilities. This change 
will require all operators in the reporting sample to report the same 
way.
    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Survey Respondents: 3,340.
    EIA-176 consists of 2,050 respondents.
    EIA-191 consists of 145 respondents.
    EIA-757 Schedule A consists of 600 respondents.
    EIA-757 Schedule B consists of 20 respondents.
    EIA-857 consists of 330 respondents.
    EIA-910 consists of 100 respondents.
    EIA-912 consists of 95 respondents.
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 14,227.
    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 50,724.
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: The 
information is maintained in the normal course of business. The cost of 
the burden hours is estimated to be $3,736, 330 (50,724 burden hours 
times $73.66 per hour). Other than the cost of burden hours, EIA 
estimates that there are no additional costs for generating, 
maintaining and providing the information.
    Statutory Authority: Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy 
Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, codified as 15 U.S.C. 
772(b) and the DOE Organization Act of 1977, Pub. L. 95-91, codified at 
42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.

    Issued in Washington, DC on October 17, 2017.
Nanda Srinivasan,
Director, Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration, 
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2017-23398 Filed 10-26-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P