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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Form Approved 

ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION OMB No. 1905-0175 

Washington, DC 20585 Expiration Date: 02/28/2015 

 

MONTHLY UNDERGROUND GAS STORAGE REPORT 

FORM EIA-191 

INSTRUCTIONS

PURPOSE 

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form EIA-191, 

“Monthly Underground Gas Storage Report,” provides data on the 

operations of all active underground storage facilities. Data are 

collected pursuant to the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) Act of 

1974, Public Law 93-275. This report is mandatory under the FEA Act. 

The data appear in the EIA publications Monthly Energy Review, 

Natural Gas Annual, and Natural Gas Monthly.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS 

All companies that operate underground natural gas storage fields in 

the United States must provide the information requested. 

WHEN TO REPORT 

Information requested must be provided within 20 days after the end of 

the report month. Twelve reports are required per calendar year. 

If additional fields are acquired, or storage activities begin in a new 

facility during the year, you are required to enter their field characteristics 

for the month when initial activity begins. 

COPIES OF THE SURVEY FORM AND 

INSTRUCTIONS 

Copies in portable document format (PDF) and spreadsheet format 

(XLS) are available on EIA's website at: 

www.eia.doe.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.doe.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. 

HOW TO REPORT 

Instructions on where to report via mail, fax, secure file transfer, or 

email are printed on Part 2 of Form EIA-191. 

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.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 

All volumes should be reported in thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Negative 

values should not be filed on any part of the Form EIA-191. 

Provide data for all fields your company operates. You may copy 

additional forms or download additional electronic files when 

submitting data for more than 2 fields. 

Reporting of preliminary or estimated data is encouraged if necessary 

to meet the due date. Indicate when revised reports are submitted by 

checking the box. A revised report is required if actual or corrected data 

vary more than plus or minus 4 percent from the data previously 

reported as estimated data. 

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS 

PART 1: RESPONDENT IDENTIFICATION DATA 

Please provide up-to-date company information. 

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) 800-5261, a number 

will then be assigned by the EIA. 

Resubmission: Check the box if report is a revised report. If the report 

is an original, leave this space blank. 

Company Name: Enter the company name. 

Contact Information: Enter the current contact information. 

PART 2: SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Provides information for the four options available for submitting your 

completed Form EIA-191: (1) mail; (2) email; (3) fax; and (4) Secure 

File Transfer. 

PART 3: FIELD CHARACTERISTICS 

All information requested in this part of the form must be reported each 

time the form is submitted. 

Information should be provided for your field/s as defined below in the 

definitions. Report all volumes in Thousand Cubic Feet (Mcf), 14.73 

psia-60o

 F, as of 9:00 a.m. on the last day of the report month. 

For Type of Facility, check the box corresponding to one of the 

following: depleted gas field, aquifer, salt dome, or other facility. If 

“other” is reported, please provide additional information regarding the 

type of facility in the comments section. 

For Field Status, check the box corresponding to one of the following: 

active, abandoned, depleting, or other status. If “other” is reported, 

please provide additional information regarding the field status in the 

comments section. 
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PART 4: MONTHLY GAS STORAGE DATA 

All information requested in this part of the form must be reported each 

time the form is submitted. 

Information should be provided for your field/s as defined below in the 

definitions. Report all volumes in Thousand Cubic Feet (Mcf), 14.73 

psia-60o

 F, as of 9:00 a.m. on the last day of the report month. 

In most cases, net injections or withdrawals should correspond to the 

difference between total gas volume for the current and prior report 

period. 

Comments: Use the space provided to describe any unusual or 

substantially different aspects of your monthly operations that affect the 

data reported. 

DEFINITIONS 

Base (cushion) gas: The volume of gas needed to maintain adequate 

reservoir pressures and deliverability rates throughout the withdrawal 

season. Base gas usually is not withdrawn, and remains in the reservoir. 

All native gas is included in the base gas volume. 

Injections: The volume of gas injected into storage reservoirs during 

the report month. 

Maximum Deliverability: The maximum rate (Mcf/day) natural gas 

can be withdrawn (or delivered) from a storage field when filled to 

maximum capacity. 

Total Gas in Storage: The sum of base gas plus working gas. 

Total Storage Field Capacity: The maximum volume of natural gas 

(including both base and working gas) that can be stored in an 

underground storage facility in accordance with its design 

specifications, the physical characteristics of the reservoir, installed 

compression equipment, and operating procedures particular to the site. 

Withdrawals: The volume of gas withdrawn from storage reservoirs 

during the report month. 

Working (top storage) gas: The volume of natural gas in an 

underground storage facility available to be withdrawn, not including 

base gas. Working gas may or may not be completely withdrawn 

during any particular withdrawal season. 

SANCTIONS 

The timely submission of Form EIA-191 by those required to report is 

mandatory under Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy Administration 

(FEA) Act of 1974, (Public Law 93-275), as amended. Failure to 

respond may result in a civil penalty of not more than $2,750 a day for 

each violation, or a fine of not more than $5,000 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. 

PROVISIONS FOR CONFIDENTIALITY 

Information collected in Parts 1, 2, and 3 on Form EIA-191 will be 

considered public information, and may be publicly released in 

company or individually identifiable form, and will not be protected 

from disclosure in identifiable form. Information collected in Part 4 

(including Base Gas, Working Gas and Total Gas in Storage data), 

however, 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 Energy Information Administration (EIA) will 

protect your monthly gas storage 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); 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-191 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. 

FILING FORMS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

AND ESTIMATED REPORTING BURDEN 

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated 

to average 2.6 hours per response, including the time for 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 the 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.