60456 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 194 / Tuesday, October 7, 2014 / Notices 

increasing teacher effectiveness and 

achieving equity in teacher distribution; 

and (d) turning around our lowestachieving schools. 

Dated: October 2, 2014. 

Stephanie Valentine, 

Acting Director, Information Collection 

Clearance Division, Privacy, Information and 

Records Management Services, Office of 

Management. 

[FR Doc. 2014–23875 Filed 10–6–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Proposed Agency Information 

Collection 

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information 

Administration (EIA), U.S. Department 

of Energy. 

ACTION: Notice and Request for OMB 

Review and Comment. 

SUMMARY: EIA has submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for clearance, under the 

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995, for the natural gas survey 

forms (OMB–1975–0175). EIA requests a 

three-year clearance for the following 

forms: 

• EIA 176, ‘‘Annual Report of Natural 

and Supplemental Gas Supply and 

Disposition,’’ 

• EIA 191, ‘‘Monthly and Annual 

Underground Natural 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,’’ and 

• EIA–912, ‘‘Weekly Underground 

Natural Gas Storage Report.’’ 

The proposed data collection will 

make minor changes to the forms and 

instructions to provide clarity. The 

number of respondents for EIA–191, 

EIA–857 and EIA–757 has been 

increased to reflect recent survey frame 

research which has identified new 

respondents. Data confidentiality 

procedures for protecting the 

identifiability of submitted data remain 

unchanged for all forms with the 

exception of a portion of Form EIA–191. 

EIA is also proposing a change to the 

published revision policy for Form EIA– 

912, a Principal Federal Economic 

Indicator. In addition, EIA is proposing 

specific changes to several of the forms; 

these changes are described in detail in 

the ‘‘Supplementary Information’’ 

section below. 

DATES: Comments regarding this 

collection must be received on or before 

November 6, 2014. 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 or contacted by email at 

Chad_S_Whiteman@omb.eop.gov. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be sent to the 

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_Whiteman@omb.eop.gov. and 

to 

Amy Sweeney, U.S. Energy Information 

Administration, Mail Stop EI–24, 

Forrestal Building, 1000 

Independence Avenue SW., 

Washington, DC 20585, 

Amy.Sweeney@eia.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

copies of any forms and instructions 

should be directed to Ms. Sweeney 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 No.: 1975–0175. 

(2) Information Collection Request 

Title: ‘‘Natural Gas Data Collection 

Program Package.’’ 

(3) Type of Request: Proposed 

revision and three-year extension of the 

natural gas surveys. 

(4) Purpose: EIA is proposing the 

following changes: 

(a) Form EIA–176, ‘‘Annual Report of 

Natural and Supplemental Gas 

Supply and Disposition’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension, with 

changes, of a currently approved 

collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–176, ‘‘Annual 

Report of Natural and Supplemental Gas 

Supply and Disposition,’’ collects data 

on natural, synthetic, and other 

supplemental gas supplies, disposition, 

and certain revenues by state. The data 

appear in the EIA publications, Monthly 

Energy Review, Natural Gas Annual, 

and Natural Gas Monthly. The proposed 

changes include: 

• In Part 3, EIA is proposing to collect 

information on the price of compressed 

natural gas (CNG) for natural gas local 

distribution companies that sell CNG to 

the public. This information will 

provide information on retail prices of 

CNG. CNG is a growing segment of the 

natural gas industry that is not 

represented in EIA’s natural gas retail 

price series. 

• In Part 4, EIA is proposing to collect 

data related to costs associated with 

already-reported information on natural 

gas purchased and received at the city 

gate. EIA collects information on costs 

associated with purchases at the city 

gate on a monthly basis on Form EIA– 

857 for a sample of companies that 

report on Form EIA–176. However, the 

monthly city gate purchase information 

is frequently subject to monthly trueups and having an annual benchmark 

for city gate purchase costs is expected 

to lead to a more accurate depiction of 

natural gas distributors’ cost of natural 

gas. 

• In Part 5, EIA is proposing to collect 

the capacity of liquefied natural gas 

(LNG) marine terminals to gain a better 

understanding of the extent to which 

these storage assets are able to supply 

the market during periods of peak 

natural gas demand. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: 2,012 respondents. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: The annual number of total 

responses is 2,012. 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden is 24,144 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

(b) Form EIA–191, ‘‘Monthly 

Underground Gas Storage Report’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension, with 

changes, of a currently approved 

collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–191, ‘‘Monthly 

Underground Gas Storage Report,’’ 

collects data on the operations of all 

active underground storage facilities. 

The data appear in the EIA publications 

Monthly Energy Review, Natural Gas 

Annual, and Natural Gas Monthly. EIA 

is proposing to make the following 

changes to the form: 

• To reduce reporting burden EIA is 

proposing to discontinue two categories 

regarding Field Status: ‘‘Depleting’’ and 

‘‘Other.’’ EIA will use only two 

categories, ‘‘Active’’ and ‘‘Inactive.’’ The 

category ‘‘Inactive’’ is more descriptive 

and replaces the Field Status category 

label of ‘‘Abandoned.’’ The ‘‘Depleting’’ 

and ‘‘Other’’ categories are rarely used 

by reporting companies and collapsing 

these categories into ‘‘Inactive’’ will not 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 194 / Tuesday, October 7, 2014 / Notices 60457 

cause a loss in data utility, as the same 

data will still be reported, albeit in a 

single category. 

• EIA is proposing to make public 

reported values for monthly base gas 

levels reported in Part 4. This 

information will enhance the utility of 

the underground storage information 

already available to the public 

pertaining to capacity and working gas 

capacity. Additionally, base gas can 

indicate another potential source of 

supply during times of sustained high 

demand as there have traditionally been 

some withdrawals of base gas, albeit 

small amounts, late during the heating 

season. The current confidentiality 

protection covering the other 

information reported in Part 4, 

including monthly working gas, total 

gas in storage, and injections and 

withdrawals into storage, will be 

retained. EIA will continue to publish, 

in disaggregated form, information 

collected in Part 3 of Form EIA–191, 

including storage field name and type, 

reservoir name, location, working gas 

and total storage field capacity, and 

maximum deliverability. On its Web 

site, EIA currently releases this 

information at the field level through its 

Natural Gas Annual Respondent Query 

System. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: There are approximately 

135 respondents. This has been 

increased from the previous clearance to 

reflect additional storage operators that 

have been identified via survey frame 

research. The change results in an 

increase of total annual responses and 

total burden hours as stated below. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: The annual estimated 

number of total responses is 1,620. 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden is 4,212 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

(c) Form EIA–757, ‘‘Natural Gas 

Processing Plant Survey’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension, with 

changes, of a currently approved 

collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–757, ‘‘Natural 

Gas Processing Plant Survey,’’ 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 

collected no more than every three years 

to collect baseline operating and 

capacity information from all 

respondents and Schedule B is activated 

as needed and collected from a sample 

of respondents in affected areas as 

needed. Schedule A was most recently 

conducted in 2012 and Schedule B was 

most recently activated in 2012 for 

Hurricane Isaac with a sample of 

approximately 20 plants. 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 the following change: 

• EIA is proposing to eliminate two 

elements from Schedule A, annual 

average total plant capacity and annual 

average natural gas flow at plant inlet, 

as this information will be duplicative 

of information to be collected on a 

proposed new survey of natural gas 

processing plants, Form EIA–915, to be 

submitted under a separate OMB 

Control Number. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: Schedule A: 600; 

Schedule B: To be determined based on 

the number of processing plants that are 

within the proximity of the natural gas 

supply disruption, historically around 

20. Note the total number of 

respondents in schedule A has been 

increased from 500 to 600 due to recent 

research into the number of active 

natural gas processing plants which has 

yielded new potential respondents. The 

change results in an increase of total 

annual responses and total burden 

hours as stated below. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: Schedule A is used to collect 

information once every three years. 

Therefore, the annual estimated number 

of total responses is 200. The number of 

respondents for Schedule B varies from 

year to year, but the most recent 

activation surveyed approximately 20 

respondents. 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden for Schedule A is 100 hours. 

Schedule B is estimated to require 1.5 

hours for each respondent to complete; 

the number of respondents varies but 

the most recent activation surveyed 

approximately 20 respondents, so the 

estimated burden is 30 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

(d) Form EIA–857, ‘‘Monthly Report of 

Natural Gas Purchases and Deliveries 

to Consumers’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension, with 

change, of a currently approved 

collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–857, ‘‘Monthly 

Report of Natural Gas Purchases and 

Deliveries to Consumers,’’ 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. The data appear in the EIA 

publications, Monthly Energy Review, 

Natural Gas Annual, and Natural Gas 

Monthly. EIA is proposing the following 

change: 

• EIA is proposing to add a new 

question to the form that asks whether 

the reporting company is including any 

adjustments to prior periods in their 

current monthly reporting. Reporting 

companies frequently make adjustments 

to correct data previously submitted in 

prior periods that skew the current 

month’s reporting and EIA would like to 

propose this mechanism to more easily 

identify this phenomenon and address it 

proactively with the reporting 

companies. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: 320 respondents each 

month. The number of firms surveyed 

each month has increased to 320 in 

order to maintain sufficient coverage of 

the survey variables collected on EIA– 

857. The change results in an increase 

of total annual responses and total 

burden hours as stated below. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: The annual estimated 

number of total responses is 3,840. 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden is 13,440 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

(e) Form EIA–910, ‘‘Monthly Natural 

Gas Marketer Survey’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension of a 

currently approved collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–910, ‘‘Monthly 

Natural Gas Marketer Survey,’’ 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. EIA is proposing to 

continue Form EIA–910 in its present 

form with no changes to the elements 

collected or geographic coverage. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: There are approximately 

210 respondents each month. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: The annual estimated 

number of total responses is 2,520. 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
60458 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 194 / Tuesday, October 7, 2014 / Notices 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden is 5,040 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

(f) Form EIA–912, ‘‘Weekly 

Underground Natural Gas Storage 

Report’’ 

1. Type of Request: Extension, with 

changes, of a currently approved 

collection. 

2. Purpose: Form EIA–912, ‘‘Weekly 

Underground Natural Gas Storage 

Report,’’ collects information on weekly 

inventories of natural gas in 

underground storage facilities and 

serves as a Principal Federal Economic 

Indicator. The proposed changes 

include an additional data element as 

well as expanded geographic categories 

for working gas collection and 

publication in the Lower 48 states: 

• Instead of dividing the states into 

three regions, the East, West and 

Producing Regions, EIA is proposing to 

collect data in five regions by further 

breaking out the current regions. The 

states currently included in the 

Producing region will remain 

unchanged except for the removal of 

New Mexico. The Producing region will 

now be referred to as the South Central 

region. The South Central region will 

continue to have two subcategories for 

the different storage technologies 

prevalent in the region, salt and non-salt 

facilities. Four additional regions that 

further break out the current East and 

West regions will be added in order to 

enhance the analysis and usability of 

the data. The new geographic regions 

are defined in the following table: 

Current EIA–912 regions Proposed EIA–912 regions 

Producing Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, 

New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. 

South Central Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. 

East Region: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, 

Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, 

Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South 

Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. 

East Region: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, 

Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New 

Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

Midwest Region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, 

Missouri, and Tennessee, and Wisconsin. 

West Region: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Mountain Region: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New 

Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. 

Pacific Region: California, Oregon, and Washington. 

• EIA is also proposing a new data 

element, inventory adjustments of 

working gas in storage, to better 

distinguish when adjustments to 

working gas inventories, such as 

reclassifications between working and 

base gas, occur. In most instances, this 

data element would not be applicable to 

the majority of respondents. However, 

when inventory adjustments do occur, 

they will most easily be discerned by 

being directly reported in a designated 

portion of the form instead of being 

listed in the comments section. As the 

primary use of the WNGSR’s data is the 

net change in weekly inventory data, 

which serves as a proxy for natural gas 

flowing into and out of underground 

storage, clearer data on inventory 

adjustments that can obscure the nature 

of flows into and out of storage will be 

more easily distinguished and 

published. 

• Finally, EIA is proposing two 

changes to its current Weekly Natural 

Gas Storage Report revision policy. The 

first proposed change would reduce the 

threshold for published revisions and 

reclassifications between working and 

base gas from 7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) 

to 4 Bcf. Under the proposed revision 

policy, revisions will be announced in 

the regularly scheduled release, when 

the sum of reported changes is at least 

4 Bcf at either a regional or national 

level. Second, EIA is also proposing to 

amend the policy addressing the 

unscheduled release of revisions. Under 

the current policy, an unscheduled 

release of revised data will occur when 

the cumulative effect of respondent 

submitted data changes or corrections is 

at least 10 Bcf for the current or prior 

report week. Under the proposed policy, 

the unscheduled release of revisions to 

weekly estimates of working gas held in 

underground storage will occur when 

the cumulative sum of data changes or 

corrections to working gas and the net 

change between the two most recent 

report weeks is at least 10 Bcf. The 

proposed change leaves the 10-Bcf 

threshold, as well as the current out-ofcycle release procedures, intact but will 

further require that the revision have an 

impact of 10 Bcf or more on the reported 

net change between the two most 

recently reported weekly periods. For 

example, if one or more respondents 

submits changes totaling 10 Bcf to 

previously submitted data but the 

changes are the result of errors that have 

been accumulating over several weeks 

and do not affect flows of working 

natural gas into or out of storage in the 

most recent two reported weekly 

periods by more than 10 Bcf, the 

unscheduled data release will not occur 

and the revisions will be published with 

the next regularly scheduled release. 

3. Estimated Number of Survey 

Respondents: There are approximately 

85 respondents every week. 

4. Annual Estimated Number of Total 

Responses: The annual estimated 

number of total responses is 4,420. 

5. Annual Estimated Number of 

Burden Hours: The annual estimated 

burden is 4,420 hours. 

6. Annual Estimated Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Cost Burden: Additional 

costs to respondents are not anticipated 

beyond costs associated with response 

burden hours. 

Statutory Authority: Section 13(b) of the 

Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, 

Public Law 93–275, codified at 15 U.S.C. 

772(b). 

Issued in Washington, DC, September 30, 

2014. 

Nanda Srinivasan, 

Director of Survey Development and 

Statistical Integration, U. S. Energy 

Information Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2014–23751 Filed 10–6–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 


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