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[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45593-45594]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18751]

[[Page 45593]]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

U.S. Energy Information Administration

Proposed Agency Information Collection

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

ACTION: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Notice and Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: EIA invites public comment on the proposed collection of 
information for the new Form EIA-915, ``Monthly Gas Processing and 
Liquids Report'' that EIA is developing for submission to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995. This new form would replace Form EIA-64A, Annual Report of the 
Origin of Natural Gas Liquids, and Form EIA-816, Monthly Natural Gas 
Liquids Report, as well as obtain crucial data elements that were lost 
with the recent termination of the Form EIA-895, Annual Quantity and 
Value of Natural Gas Production Report.
    With the implementation of the proposed Form EIA-915, the Form EIA-
816 will be terminated on Jan 31, 2013 (after collecting monthly data 
for December 2012), and Form EIA-64A will be terminated in 2014 (after 
collecting annual data for 2012).
    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 October 1, 2012. If you anticipate difficulty in 
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in 
the below ADDRESSES Section as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to Jeffrey Little, EI-24, U.S. 
Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585, or by fax at (202) 586-
4420, or by email at jeffrey.little@eia.gov. Alternatively, Mr. Little 
may be contacted by telephone at (202) 586-6284.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to Jeffrey Little at the address listed above. The 
collection instrument and instructions are also available on the 
internet at: http://www.eia.gov/survey/form/eia_915/proposed/form.pdf.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB No.: NEW;
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: Monthly Gas Processing 
and Liquids Report;
    (3) Type of Request: Proposed collection;
    (4) Purpose: To improve data collection efficiency, EIA proposes a 
new collection form that is a combination of the Form EIA-64A, Annual 
Report of the Origin of Natural Gas Liquids, Form EIA-816, Monthly 
Natural Gas Liquids Report, and Form EIA-895, Annual Quantity and Value 
of Natural Gas Production Report. The proposed new Form EIA-915 will 
collect inlet data on natural gas volumes, the final disposition of all 
plant products including fuel and non-hydrocarbons, and end-of-month 
plant liquid stocks from natural gas processing plants and 
fractionators. The data collected are used to obtain an accurate 
estimate of production of marketed natural gas, dry natural gas, and 
natural gas plant liquids by geographic region. A summary of the data 
will appear in the following EIA publications: Natural Gas Monthly, 
Natural Gas Annual, Petroleum Supply Monthly, Monthly Energy Review, 
Annual Energy Review, the Annual Energy Outlook, and the EIA Web site.
    The proposed Form EIA-915 will supply crucial data elements from 
the terminated EIA-895, Annual Quantity and Value of Natural Gas 
Production Report, and Form EIA-64A, Annual Report of the Origin of 
Natural Gas Liquids, and Form EIA-816, Monthly Natural Gas Liquids 
Report. The Form EIA-895 was designed to obtain monthly information on 
an annual basis from the appropriate state agencies that collect data 
related to natural gas production. The decision to terminate the EIA-
895 form was due to data quality reporting: given that the EIA-895 form 
was a voluntary survey and the data was requested from state agencies, 
issues such as the disparity in the quality of the data and the 
difficulty enforcing the survey became increasingly problematic. Some 
of the examples of data quality and enforcement issues include: state 
data collection of natural gas production volumes were often not 
complete on the due date (90 days after the end of the report year: 
March 31) and remained incomplete for as many as 14 months past the 
deadline; components of natural gas gross and marketed production and 
natural gas lease fuel use that were requested on the form were not 
collected by all states; comparisons among components collected and 
published on the form were difficult to compare because states and EIA 
definitions were not identical; and EIA cannot legally require states 
to submit a voluntary form.
    To avoid the unacceptable loss of data from the termination of the 
Form EIA-895, the new Form EIA-915 is proposed to include information 
from this form and to also efficiently consolidate the Forms EIA-64A 
and EIA-816. The EIA-915 form will collect data from the universe of 
facilities that extract liquid hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream 
(i.e., natural gas processing plants) and/or separate a liquid 
hydrocarbon stream into its component products (i.e., fractionators). 
In addition, gas sweetening plants (plants that extract CO2, 
H2S, sulfur, etc.) will be required to submit this form. 
Approximately 550 respondents will be included in the sample survey 
frame for the Form EIA-915.
    With the forms consolidated, EIA will provide monthly marketed and 
dry natural gas production values for Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, 
Wyoming, the Federal offshore Gulf of Mexico, Other States, and Alaska. 
Monthly Gross production values for these EIA-defined geographical 
regions would continue to be populated from the EIA-914, Monthly 
Natural Gas Production Report. On an annual basis EIA will provide 
gross, marketed, and dry natural gas production values for the 31 
producing states. Information currently collected on forms EIA-64A and 
EIA-816 will be available from Form EIA-915.
    The information requested on the Form EIA-915 must be provided on a 
monthly basis within 20 days after the end of the report period (e.g., 
the form EIA-915 covering the January 2013 report period must be 
received by February 20, 2013). When the 20th day of a calendar month 
falls on a weekend or national holiday, the reports are to be filed by 
the next business day. Previously, the information requested on the 
Form EIA-895 was due by the

[[Page 45594]]

90th day after the end of the report year (March 31), Form EIA 64A 
information was due by April 11 following the end of the calendar year, 
and Form 816 information was due within 20 days of the end of the 
report period.
    Pending authorization to administer the proposed new form, EIA has 
terminated the EIA-895. Thus, the following items will no longer be 
collected: gas well gas, oil well gas, coalbed methane wells, shale 
gas, gross withdrawals, repressured gas, natural gas vented and flared, 
nonhydrocarbon gases removed, marketed production, natural gas used as 
fuel on leases, wellhead price, and number of producing gas wells. 
However, through the EIA-914 and the new form EIA-915 the following 
products will be made accessible with caveats:

 Total gross withdrawals: The monthly data will be supplied 
from the EIA-914
 Total dry production: The monthly data will be provided by a 
calculation from the EIA-914 and EIA-915 as follows:
[ssquf] Form EIA-914 will provide natural gas lease production
[ssquf] Form EIA-915 will provide the total plant intake and natural 
gas sent to transmission lines (pipelines)
[ssquf] The actual value of the dry natural gas production will have 
two steps:
    1. The difference of subtracting natural gas lease production from 
the total plant inlet will result in pipeline quality gas that does not 
require processing
    2. The value of total natural gas sent to a transmission lines 
(pipelines) will be added to pipeline quality gas resulting in dry 
production
 Total marketed production is calculated by adding together the 
dry production value and the extraction loss value
Better quality data should result in the new form, because dry 
production will be calculated as a result of metered production from 
the EIA-915 and EIA-914 (Note, the EIA-914 value is estimated from a 
statistical sample). All data elements collected from the Form EIA-816 
are to be transferred to the Form EIA-915. Form EIA-64A elements will 
also be collected through the Form EIA-915 with the addition of data 
elements such as:

Volume of Natural Gas Intake Processed

 Gas Received from Operators and Gas Gatherers Within a 
Processor's State Boundaries
 Gas Received From Other Processing Plants (provide the plant 
and state where the gas was previously processed)

Disposition of Plant Intake

 Plant Outlet (from plant meters)
 Extraction Loss
 Non-Hydrocarbons
 Vented and Flared Hydrocarbon Gas from the Processing Plant

Disposition of Plant Outlet

 Repressuring/Cycled
 Returned For Lease Fuel
 Natural Gas Sent to Fractionators for Fuel Use
 Delivered To Other Process Plant
 Transmission Line

Form EIA-915 is mandatory and must be completed by the operators of ALL 
facilities that extract liquid hydrocarbons from a natural gas stream 
(natural gas processing plants) and/or separate a liquid hydrocarbon 
stream into its component products (fractionators). In addition, gas 
sweetening plants (plants that extract CO2, H2S, 
sulfur, etc.) will be required to submit this form.
    EIA proposes that company-identifiable data from Form EIA-915 be 
released to the public in order to meet increasing data user needs for 
more company-level data. (Currently, 10 states release the gas plant 
data for free, while Bentek Energy releases the data for a fee.) EIA 
also proposes that the survey frame administrative data (e.g., 
company's name, county) from the EIA-915 be available to the public. 
This information can currently be obtained free on 10 states agencies' 
Web pages, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, or for a fee from 
Bentek Energy and Sulpetro Inc.;
    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 550 monthly 
respondents;
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 6,660 responses on 
an annual basis;
    (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 13,200;
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: No 
additional costs beyond burden hours are anticipated from the proposed 
new collection instrument.

    Statutory Authority:  Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy 
Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, codified at 15 U.S.C. 
772(b).

    Issued in Washington, DC, July 26, 2012.
Richard Reeves,
Acting Director, Office of Survey Development and Statistical 
Integration, U. S. Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2012-18751 Filed 7-31-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
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