04-17886. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of Energy (DOE).

ACTION:

Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; comment request.

SUMMARY:

The EIA has submitted the new survey form EIA-914, “Monthly Natural Gas Production Report” to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and a three-year approval under section 3507(h)(1) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)

DATES:

Comments must be filed by September 7, 2004. If you anticipate that you will be submitting comments but find it difficult to do so within that period, you should contact the OMB Desk Officer for DOE listed below as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES:

Send comments to OMB Desk Officer for DOE, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. To ensure receipt of the comments by the due date, submission by fax [phone]) is recommended. The mailing address is 726 Jackson Place, NW., Washington, DC 20503. (A copy of your comments should also be provided to EIA's Statistics and Methods Group at the address below.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information should be directed to Herbert Miller. To ensure receipt of the comments by the due date, submission by fax [phone]) or e-mail ([e-mail]) is recommended. The mailing address is Statistics and Methods Group (EI-70), Forrestal Building, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585-0670. Mr. Miller may be contacted by telephone at [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This section contains the following information about the energy information collection submitted to OMB for review: (1) The collection numbers and title; (2) the sponsor (i.e., the Department of Energy component); (3) the current OMB docket number (if applicable); (4) the type of request (i.e., new, revision, extension, or reinstatement); (5) response obligation (i.e., mandatory, voluntary, or required to obtain or retain benefits); (6) a description of the need for and proposed use of the information; (7) a categorical description of the likely respondents; and (8) an estimate of the total annual reporting burden.

1. EIA-914, “Monthly Natural Gas Production Report”.

2. Energy Information Administration.

3. OMB Number—Not applicable.

4. New.

5. Mandatory.

6. The purpose of the survey is to collect monthly data on the production of natural gas in seven geographical areas (Texas (including State offshore), Louisiana (including State offshore), Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Federal Gulf of Mexico offshore and Other States (defined as all remaining states, except Alaska, in which the operator produced natural gas during the report month). Data will be used to monitor natural gas supplies. Survey respondents would be a sample of well operators.

Since EIA's main goal is to have timely overall production information, at this time the agency is not proposing to collect information on gas used for repressuring and reinjection, gas vented and flared, fuel used on the lease, or nonhydrocarbons removed on the lease, as proposed in the Federal Register on April 23, 2004, pp. 22019-22025. The proposed data collection would consist of (1) natural gas gross withdrawals (wet) and (2) natural gas lease production.

7. Business or other for-profit.

8. 15,517 hours.

Please refer to the supporting statement as well as the proposed forms and instructions for more information about the purpose, who must report, when to report, where to submit, the elements to be reported, detailed instructions, provisions for confidentiality, and uses (including possible nonstatistical uses) of the information. For instructions on obtaining materials, see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

Statutory Authority: Section 3507(h)(1) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq).

Issued in Washington, DC, July 30, 2004.

Jay H. Casselberry,

Agency Clearance Officer, Statistics and Methods Group, Energy Information Administration.