EIA-877 Respondents Welcome Letter

Department of Energy

Washington, DC 20585

[Insert month and day], 20XX

Dear EIA-877 Respondent:

Your company has been selected for the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) mandatory weekly EIA-877, Winter Heating Fuels Telephone Survey. It is essential for you to respond to this survey each week during the heating season in order for EIA to prepare accurate and timely reports. There are two parts to the EIA-877 survey:

Heating Fuel Prices (weekly)

From October 7, 2019 through March 30, 2020, an EIA or state energy office representative will call you for your residential propane or No. 2 heating oil price on Monday (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday).

• Report the retail residential price per gallon (excluding all taxes) for residential customers that is offered to the public on the reference day (credit/keep-full prices being preferred). The price should be for local residential customers with storage tanks of approximately 275 gallons.

• Do not include in your reported price any discounts for payment of cash, or contract prices for residential customers under supply contracts. See instruction for further guidance. https://www.eia.gov/survey/#eia-877

Heating Fuel Sales Volumes (not conducted every year)

Prior to October 1, an EIA representative will contact you for your annual propane or heating oil sales volume to residential customers for January 1, 20XX through December 31, 20XX. During this call, you will be asked to:

• Report your sales volume to residential customers who use propane or heating oil to heat their homes for each outlet.

• If you are not able to provide the sales volumes for this timeframe, please provide annual volumes from your most recent complete fiscal year.

• Provide contact information for the prices to be collected in October 20XX.

Your response to this survey is mandatory and required pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 764(b), 772(b) and 790a of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974. EIA estimates that the average reporting burden each week for this survey is 6 minutes.

The information you provide on Form EIA-877 will be used for statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. In accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2018 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 report to EIA.

The data collected through the State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP) provides state and federal governments, the press, policy makers, consumers, analysts, and others with up-to-date information on retail heating fuels prices during the heating season. When there is a market disruption or supply and price volatility in heating fuel markets, the SHOPP data provides an objective measure of market conditions at the state level to facilitate communication between heating fuel marketers and the government. Aggregated data (averages across all responding companies) will be published weekly on the Heating Oil and Propane Update page at http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/heatingoilpropane and the Winter Heating Fuels page on EIA’s website at http://www.eia.gov/special/heatingfuels/.

Please keep a copy of your survey responses for your records. If you have any questions, or need assistance in responding to this survey, please contact the Survey Manager, Marcela Rourk, at 202-586-4412 or Marcela.Rourk@eia.gov or visit https://www.eia.gov/survey/#eia-877.

I appreciate your future participation and contribution to this important weekly price survey and thank you in advance for providing timely, valuable information that benefits our nation and U.S. consumers and industry.

Sincerely,

                                                                                                          

Robert Merriam, Director

Office of Petroleum and Biofuels Statistics

U.S. Energy Information Administration

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