U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON DC 20585

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 17, 2002

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Weekly Natural Gas Storage Survey to Begin in May

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will begin releasing weekly estimates of natural gas in underground storage for the United States and three regions of the United States on May 9, 2002. A sample of the format that will be used to present the weekly data is currently available at: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngs/ngs.html. After May 9, that Web site will contain the most recent estimates and provide a link to a spreadsheet of prior weekly storage estimates. The estimates will be released regularly at 10:30 a.m. on Thursdays, except for certain weeks with Federal holidays. A schedule for holiday weeks through calendar year 2002 is available at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngs/schedule.html.

This new survey ensures that there will be no lapse in coverage of this important market indicator, since a similar weekly survey conducted by the American Gas Association (AGA) will be discontinued with their final release of weekly storage estimates on May 1, 2002 (with data for April 26). The AGA survey, which began in January 1994, had provided the only weekly supply data available to the natural gas market. Traders and other gas industry analysts have relied on the data as an indicator of both demand and supply in the previous week.

General information on the weekly storage survey, including EIA's policy on using automated retrieval programs (or robots) against the EIA site is available at: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngs/information.html. Those with questions about using automated retrieval programs should contact the EIA webmaster, Al Gerard (telephone: 202-586-4208; e-mail: al.gerard@eia.doe.gov).

A paper discussing the Form EIA-912, "Weekly Underground Natural Gas Survey" and the estimation methods used will be available through this Web site on May 1, 2002. A second paper, comparing the AGA and EIA surveys and methods and providing EIA estimates of underground storage for the 7 weeks ending April 26, 2002, will be available through this Web site on May 9, 2002.