The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is proposing a change to the format of its Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR), adding an estimate of the implied flow of working natural gas into or out of underground storage facilities to its WNGSR summary table.

The implied flow estimates will exclude reportable reclassifications — those totaling 7 Bcf or more — from the weekly net change in working natural gas, EIA said. The implied flow would represent flow activity into or out of underground storage facilities derived from comparing the working gas stocks, excluding reportable reclassifications, reported by storage operators to EIA for the two most recent weeks.

The agency would continue to provide an explanatory note separating the effect of reportable reclassifications from the implied flow included in the net change.

The change is being made to better serve customers who use automated computer systems to collate information on changes in natural gas storage, EIA said. The proposed “implied flow” column would “allow users interested in that value to find it directly, rather than having to calculate it using the data on working gas storage levels in the prior and current week in conjunction with data on reclassifications that were described in a note below the table,” EIA said.

The agency said it would provide further notice of technical details, a schedule for the change and a test site where users may test their automated data retrieval systems on dummy data before the new format goes live. The testing period would be preceded by a public announcement later this year, and an implementation date for the changes would be announced after the public testing is completed.

Until the format change is introduced, EIA plans to disclose any reportable reclassifications in notes below the WNGSR summary table, but exclude them from the summary table with the current report week’s working natural gas stocks and net change estimates.