[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 82 (Monday, May 1, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20333-20335]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-08742]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension

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

ACTION: Agency information collection activities: Information 
collection extension; notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The EIA, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
intends to extend with changes for three years with the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB), the surveys in the Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program Package under OMB Control No. 1905-0175. This 
program provides information on the supply and disposition of natural 
gas within the United States.
    The surveys covered by this information collection request include:

Form EIA-176, Annual Report of Natural and Supplemental Gas Supply and 
Disposition
EIA-191, Monthly Underground Gas Storage Report
EIA-757, Natural Gas Processing Plant Survey
EIA-857, Monthly Report of Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries to 
Consumers
EIA-910, Monthly Natural Gas Marketer Survey
EIA-912, Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.

DATES: Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be 
received on or before June 30, 2017. If you anticipate difficulty in 
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in 
ADDRESSES as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Michael Kopalek, Natural Gas 
Downstream Team, Office of Petroleum and Biofuel Statistics, U.S. 
Energy Information Administration. To ensure receipt of the comments by 
the due date, submission by email ([email protected]) is 
recommended. The mailing address is Michael Kopalek, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Ave. SW., EI-25, Washington, DC 20585. Telephone 202-586-
4001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the any forms and instructions should be directed to Mr. 
Kopalek at the address listed above. Also, the draft forms and 
instructions are available on the EIA Web site at http://www.eia.gov/survey/notice/ngdownstreamforms2015.cfm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB Control Number 1902-0175;
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program;
    (3) Type of Request: Renewal, with changes;
    (4) Purpose: The Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 
93-275, 15 U.S.C. 761 et seq.) and the DOE Organization Act (Pub. L. 
95-91, 42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) require EIA to carry out a centralized, 
comprehensive, and unified energy information program. This program 
collects, evaluates, assembles, analyzes, and disseminates information 
on energy resource reserves, production, demand, technology, and 
related economic statistics. This information is used to assess the 
adequacy of energy resources to meet both near- and long-term domestic 
demands.

[[Page 20334]]

    EIA, as part of its effort to comply with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), provides the 
general public and other Federal agencies with opportunities to comment 
on the collection of energy information conducted by or in conjunction 
with EIA. Comments help EIA prepare information collection requests 
that maximize the utility of the information collected and assess the 
impact of collection requirements on the public.
    The natural gas 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). Respondents to EIA natural gas 
surveys include underground storage operators, processors, 
transporters, marketers, and distributors. Each form included as part 
of this package is discussed in detail below.
    Please refer to the proposed forms and instructions for more 
information about the purpose, who must report, when to report, where 
to submit, the elements to be reported, detailed instructions, 
provisions for confidentiality, and uses (including possible 
nonstatistical uses) of the information. For instructions on obtaining 
materials, see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.
    EIA requests a three-year extension of collection authority for 
each of the above-referenced surveys with proposed changes to Forms 
EIA-176, EIA-910, EIA-912 and minor changes to improve clarity in the 
instructions to Forms EIA-191, 757, and 857.
    (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, disposition, and certain revenues by state. 
The proposed changes include:
    a. Add a question in Part 3(B) asking respondents if they have an 
alternative-fueled vehicle fleet, and if so, what kind and how many 
vehicles comprise the fleet. This information will improve survey frame 
coverage and data accuracy reported on Form EIA-886, Annual Survey of 
Alternative Fueled Vehicles;
    b. Add a new section Part 3(E) to add a question for local 
distribution companies to provide all five-digit zip codes in their 
distribution territory where they deliver natural gas for end-use 
consumption. This information enables EIA to estimate the approximate 
service territory for a local distribution company. This information 
will allow EIA analysts and data customers to understand service 
territories associated with natural gas distributors. EIA has received 
inquiries for this information in the past;
    c. Add a question in Part 3 (F) asking respondents for the names 
and zip codes of any aboveground liquefied (LNG) natural gas storage 
facilities that are owned by, operated by, or provide services to a 
survey respondent. EIA proposes to collect this information to 
facilitate collection of LNG data by providing a list of operators and 
their locations;
    d. Discontinue collecting costs associated with purchase gas 
received within the service area. In the past, EIA spent substantial 
resources to validate this information. EIA has the capability to 
estimate values for this activity using monthly data. EIA proposes to 
delete this data element to reduce respondent reporting burden; and
    e. 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 proposed change is designed to improve 
the coverage and accuracy of respondents reporting this information and 
will assist EIA in its modeling and analysis.
    f. Add a question in Part 6 Line 12.5, ``Vehicle fuel used in 
company fleet'' to collect information on vehicle fuel for company 
vehicles. Based on cognitive testing of the 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 use volumes do 
not have associated revenue and should not be included in 10.5 and 
11.5. Adding this question will give respondents an explicit place 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 proposing to make 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 does not provide the intended utility for EIA so EIA 
proposes to delete it to reduce reporting burden.

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 constraints 
of natural gas processing plants during periods of supply disruption in 
areas affected by an emergency, such as a hurricane. Schedule A of the 
EIA-757 is used to collect data every three years. Schedule A collects 
information on 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 energy 
disruption. EIA is proposing to continue the collection of the same 
data elements on Form EIA-757 Schedules A and B in their present form 
with one minor protocol change:
    a. Collect EIA-757 Schedule A data for new natural gas processing 
plants that opened and began operations between 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.

[[Page 20335]]

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

    Form EIA-857 collects 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. EIA is not proposing any substantive changes to 
Form EIA-857.

Form EIA-910, Monthly Natural Gas Marketer, and Form EIA-912 Weekly 
Underground Natural Gas Storage Report

    Form EIA-910 collects information on natural gas sales from 
marketers in selected states that have active customer choice programs. 
EIA is requesting information on the volume and revenue for natural gas 
commodity sales and any receipts for distribution charges and taxes 
associated with the sale of natural gas.
    Form EIA-912 collects information on weekly inventories of natural 
gas in underground storage facilities.
    EIA proposes a permanent change in the confidentiality pledge to 
respondents to Forms EIA-910 and EIA-912. EIA revised its 
confidentiality pledge to Forms EIA-910 and EIA-912 survey respondents 
under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
Efficiency Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 (note)) (CIPSEA) in an emergency Federal 
Register notice published on January 12, 2017 in 82 FR 3764. These 
revisions were necessary because of requirements from the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-11, Division N, 
Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This law permits and requires the 
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide 
Federal civilian agencies' information technology systems with 
cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic. Federal statistics 
provide key information that the Nation uses to measure its performance 
and make informed choices about budgets, energy, employment, health, 
investments, taxes, and a host of other significant topics. Strong and 
trusted confidentiality and exclusively statistical use pledges under 
the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act 
(CIPSEA) and similar statistical confidentiality pledges are effective 
and necessary in honoring the trust that businesses, individuals, and 
institutions, by their responses, place in statistical agencies. EIA 
proposed to make this change permanent in a separate Federal Register 
notice released on March 1, 2017 in 82 FR 12217 for all EIA surveys 
protected under CIPSEA. In this notice EIA proposes to permanently 
revise the confidentiality pledge to Form EIA-910 and EIA-912 
respondents as follows:

    The information you provide on Form EIA-xxx will be used for 
statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. In accordance 
with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
Efficiency Act of 2002 and other applicable Federal laws, your 
responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form without your 
consent. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, 
Federal information systems are protected from malicious activities 
through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Every EIA 
employee, as well as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, 
or both if he or she makes public ANY identifiable information you 
reported.

    EIA is not proposing any other substantive changes to Form EIA-910.
    EIA proposes one additional change to Form EIA-912. EIA proposes to 
include an additional geographic data element for working gas 
collection and publication in the Lower 48 states:
    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 proposed change 
would require respondents to allocate volumes in their reported data 
between Salt facilities and Nonsalt facilities; this would 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 (Bcf) of storage capacity in the South Central 
region report volumes separately between Salt facilities or Nonsalt 
facilities. This proposed change will require all operators in the 
reporting sample to report the same way.
    Request for Comments: EIA invites comments on the extension of this 
information collection package and the proposed changes discussed above 
to the corresponding survey forms and instructions.
    (5) Estimated Total Number of Survey Respondents: 3,340.
    EIA-176 consists of 2,050 respondents.
    EIA-191 consists of 145 respondents.
    EIA-757 consists of 600 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: 14,183.
    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 50,564.
    (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 $3,724,554 (50,564 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, P.L. 95-91, codified at 
42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on April 18, 2017.
Nanda Srinivasan,
Director, Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration, U. 
S. Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2017-08742 Filed 4-28-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P