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

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
Washington, DC 20585

Form Approved
OMB No. 1905-0175
Expiration Date: 02/28/2015

MONTHLY REPORT OF NATURAL GAS PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES TO CONSUMERS
FORM EIA-857
INSTRUCTIONS
PURPOSE
The 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.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Reports must be completed by all companies selected to submit
the Form EIA-857. 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 as well.

WHEN TO REPORT
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 are to be filed
by the next business day.

HOW TO REPORT
Instructions on where to report via mail, fax, secure file transfer,
or email are printed on Part 2 of Form EIA-857.

SECURE FILE TRANSFER
Forms may be submitted through the Secure File Transfer System.
The secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) is an industry
standard method to send information over the web using a secure,
encrypted process. All information is protected by 128-bit
encryption to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of
transmitted data. The Secure File Transfer System may be
accessed
through
the
following
web
address:
https://signon.eia.doe.gov/upload/noticeoog.jsp.

http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/natural_gas/survey_forms/nat_survey_
forms.html
You can also access the materials by following these steps:
• Go to EIA's website at www.eia.gov.
• Click on the Natural Gas category (this takes you to EIA's
natural gas information page).
• Click on the Survey Forms link located in the reference box in
the lower right corner.
• Select the materials you want.
Files must be saved to your personal computer. Data cannot be
entered interactively on the website.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
Complete only those Parts and data elements applicable to your
operations. Leave all other spaces blank. No data are to be entered
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 percent from
the data previously reported. This includes prior period
adjustments, which should be filed as resubmissions for the
months to which the adjustments were made. If company records
do not permit allocation of adjustments to the appropriate months,
the adjustments should be reported in the area provided for
comments.
All respondents should review forms prior to submission. A
comment section on the form is provided for addressing 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.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS
PART 1: RESPONDENT IDENTIFICATION
Please provide up-to-date company information.

COPIES OF THE SURVEY FORM AND
INSTRUCTIONS
Copies in portable document format (PDF) and spreadsheet format
(XLS) are available on EIA's website at:

EIA ID Number: Complete 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. In the event an identification number has not been
assigned, leave the space blank and contact the EIA at (877) 8005261. A number will then be assigned by the EIA.

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Resubmission: Check the box if report is a revised report. If the
report is an original, leave this space blank.

reported in the comments section. Prior reports need not be revised
to reflect such sums.

Company Name: Enter the company name.

Total Operational Sendout to Consumers of Gas Owned and
Not Owned (Sendout) (line 2.0):

Contact Information: Enter the current contact information.
PART 2: SUBMISSION INFORMATION
This section provides information regarding the four options
available for submitting your completed Form EIA-857: (1) mail;
(2) fax; (3) email; and (4) Secure File Transfer.
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.

Report total operational system sendout delivered to consumers
for the report month. This includes 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 through 13 are not required to match
the system sendout as sector breakouts may not strictly coincide
with the calendar month. The volumes reported in line 2 should
be greater than or equal to the volumes in line 1, Citygate
purchases.
Note: Pipeline companies are not required to report Total Sendout.
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. Includes 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 EIA-176), 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.
Volume may represent your best estimate. Interdepartmental
volumes used to fuel company-owned generation facilities should
be classified as electric power.
Note: Pipeline companies are not required to report company use.

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 are to 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.

PART 4: NATURAL GAS DELIVERIES TO CONSUMERS
BASED ON FINANCIAL RECORDS (lines 3 through 13)
Flexibility is afforded to accommodate differences in the billing
schedules and accounting practices of respondents. Data may be
reported based upon the supplier’s monthly billing period and 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, in order to file by the due date, complete the report
based upon estimates. Estimated data items should be denoted by a
note 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 through 7) and for
natural gas that you do not own (items 8 through 12). For line 13,
sum all lines to represent the total of all volumes delivered for
consumption to all customers, including volumes the company
used.

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) are to
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.

Customers: The number of customers should reflect the average
number of customers in each end-use category for the report
month. Report as the number of customers, the number of
consumers attached to your system during each month. Each
dwelling, building, plant, establishment, or location is to be
counted as a separate consumer, for the purpose of this report,
whether or not 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 in
order to avoid double-counting.

Lump sum refunds received or lump sum minimum take, take-orpay, or similar charges paid for prior period receipts should be
excluded from Part 3 but described in the area provided for
comments. Only total amounts received or paid need to be

Revenue: Revenue should include gross revenues, all system
charges or minimum bill amounts, commodity charges, taxes,
surcharges, adjustments or other charges billed for the gas
delivered. Amounts refunded in the form of reduced bills should

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be reflected. Refunds to consumers in the form of check refunds
should be excluded but the total refunded should be reported in the
area provided for comments. For customers on level payment,
deferred payment, or similar plans, amounts ultimately to be paid
for the volumes delivered should be reported. In the event your
regularly maintained records do not include all charges for which
customers are billed, for example local sales taxes, provide a
comment on your initial submission explaining the type of charges
excluded in the area provided for comments. Net gains or losses
associated with financial hedges are to be included for the report
month in which the gas associated with the hedge is delivered. All
revenue values are to 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 in accordance with
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 are to be classified based
upon 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.
Deliveries to end-use consumers should not include volumes for
resale and are to 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 be included in commercial but
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. Report volumes in thousand cubic feet.
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; mining, including
oil and gas extraction; and construction. 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
includes generators that produce electricity and/or useful thermal
output primarily to support the above-mentioned industrial
activities.
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.
Other (lines 7.0 and 12.0) (not included in above categories;
specify type): This category is only to be used for service
provided directly to consumers for which 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): Report sum of all deliveries in
lines 3-12. This total is not expected to match Total Operational
Sendout in line 2 due to differences between calendar month
records and financial records which 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
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
Nonregulated electricity generators

Residential
Residential
Residential
Residential
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Commercial
Industrial
Industrial
Industrial
Electric
Power
Electric
Power

Heat content of gas delivered to customers (Btu/cu. ft.)
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
dividing by the total volume delivered directly to consumers
during that month. The average Btu content for each month should
be that used for billing purposes whether billing was on a therm
(100,000 Btu) or decatherm (1,000,000 Btu) basis. The value for
heat content is expected to be in the range of 900 to 1200 Btu/cu.
ft.
If billing was on a volumetric basis and your company did not
measure the Btu content, contact your supplier for the information.

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If the Btu content was not measured at any point, enter a "U" for
Unknown.

PROVISIONS REGARDING
CONFIDENTIALITY 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. The EIA will protect your information in
accordance with its confidentiality and security policies and
procedures.
The Federal Energy Administration Act requires the 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 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.

SANCTIONS
The timely submission of Form EIA-857 by those required to
report is mandatory under Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy
Administration Act of 1974 (FEA Act) (Public Law 93-275), as
amended. Failure to respond may result in a civil penalty of not
more than $2,750 each day for each violation, or a fine of not
more than $5,000 each day for each willful 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.

FILING FORMS WITH FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT AND ESTIMATED
REPORTING BURDEN
Respondents are not required to file or reply to any Federal
collection of information unless it has a valid OMB control
number. Public reporting burden for this collection of information
is estimated to average 3.5 hours per response, including the time
of reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the 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, Office of Survey
Development and Statistical Integration, EI-21, 1000
Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585; and to
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.

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