[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 177 (Thursday, September 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63098-63099]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-19929]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Proposed Extension

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

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: EIA invites public comment on the proposed three-year 
extension, with changes, to the Natural Gas Data Collection Program, 
OMB Control Number 1905-0175, as required under the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995. The surveys covered by this request include; Form EIA-176, 
Annual Report of Natural and Supplemental Gas Supply and Disposition; 
Form EIA-191, Monthly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report; Form EIA-
191L, Monthly Liquefied Natural 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; and Form EIA-912, Weekly Natural 
Gas Storage Report. The Natural Gas Data Collection Program provides 
information on natural gas storage, supply, processing, distribution, 
consumption, and prices, by sector, within the United States.

DATES: EIA must receive all comments on this proposed information 
collection no later than November 13, 2023. If you anticipate any 
difficulties in submitting your comments by the deadline, contact the 
email address listed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice as soon as 
possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to: [email protected] with 
the subject line ``Regarding EIA's Natural Gas Data Collection Package 
60-Day FRN.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you need additional information, 
contact Michael Kopalek, U.S. Energy Information Administration, 
telephone (202) 586-4001, or by email at [email protected]. The 
forms and instructions are available on EIA's website at www.eia.gov/survey/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB No.: 1905-0175.
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program.
    (3) Type of Request: Three-year extension with changes.
    (4) Purpose: The surveys included in the Natural Gas Data 
Collection Program collect information on natural gas underground 
storage, supply, processing, transmission, distribution, consumption by 
sector, and consumer prices. The data collected supports public policy 
analyses and produces estimates of the natural gas industry. The 
statistics generated from these surveys are published on EIA's website, 
https://www.eia.gov, and are used in various EIA information 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), and Annual Energy Outlook (AEO).
    (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. During the previous collection package, EIA modified the survey 
instructions to include Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) producers who 
inject high-Btu RNG into an interstate pipeline, intra-state pipeline, 
or natural gas distribution company system. As such, EIA requests an 
increase in respondent count and burden to accommodate additions of new 
respondents to the survey frame.

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 collects baseline operating and 
capacity information from all respondents on a triennial basis or less 
frequently. Schedule B is used on an emergency standby basis and is 
activated during natural disasters or other energy disruptive events. 
Schedule B collects data from a sample of respondents in the affected 
areas.
    EIA proposes to discontinue collection of Form EIA-757 Schedule A, 
and burden hours have been adjusted downward accordingly. As part of 
the Terms of Clearance of the package prior to this, EIA has 
investigated potential consolidation of the EIA-757 Schedule A survey 
with another, more frequent natural gas processing plant survey, the 
EIA-64A Survey (OMB number 1905-0057). As a result of this research, 
EIA proposes that the EIA-64A Survey will absorb several key data items 
from the EIA-757 Schedule A Survey in order to reduce overall 
respondent burden and eliminate duplicative data collection efforts. 
This resolves the prior Terms of Clearance.
    EIA-757 Schedule B, which is a standby survey, is active in 
instances of a natural disaster or incident resulting in widespread 
closures of natural gas processing plants. However, since the agency 
has not elected to activate the survey at any point in the last six 
years (two clearance cycles), EIA is reducing the requested burden 
hours by 50% to allow an activation once every three years, rather than 
twice every three years.

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 consumers by end-use sector, on a monthly 
basis by state. EIA is increasing the requested burden to accommodate 
increased sample coverage, parallel to the increased scope of the EIA-
176, the universe from which this survey's sample is drawn.

Form EIA-912, Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report

    Form EIA-912 collects information on weekly inventories of natural 
gas in underground storage facilities. EIA is slightly decreasing the 
requested burden to more accurately reflect demonstrated sample sizes 
over the past six years.

Forms EIA-191, Monthly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report, EIA-
191L, Monthly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report, and EIA-910, 
Monthly Natural Gas Marketer Survey, Have No Changes

    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,045;
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 15,993;
    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 56,776;
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
$4,959,951

[[Page 63099]]

(56,776 burden hours times $87.36 per hour.)
    EIA estimates that respondents will have no additional costs 
associated with the surveys other than the burden hours and the 
maintenance of the information during the normal course of business.
    Comments are invited on whether or not: (a) The proposed collection 
of information is necessary for the proper performance of agency 
functions, including whether the information will have a practical 
utility; (b) EIA's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions 
used, is accurate; (c) EIA can improve the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information it will collect; and (d) EIA can minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, such as 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 772(b) and 42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2023.
Samson A. Adeshiyan,
Director, Office of Statistical Methods and Research, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2023-19929 Filed 9-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P