Gas Utilities Data Provider - Storage, Price, Flow and Infrastructure Datasets Delivered · Head-to-head
EIA Natural Gas Data Portal vs EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State (dnav)
Which gas utilities data provider - storage, price, flow and infrastructure datasets delivered data fits your job: EIA Natural Gas Data Portal, or EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
EIA Natural Gas Data Portal
EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State (dnav)
Where the fields line up
No shared field names. These two answer different questions.
| Field | EIA Natural Gas Data Portal | EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State |
|---|---|---|
Natural gas supply and disposition | documented | not in this set |
Henry Hub spot and futures prices | documented | not in this set |
Residential, commercial and industrial delivered prices | documented | not in this set |
Proved reserves by type | documented | not in this set |
Dry shale gas production by play | documented | not in this set |
Natural gas imports and exports | documented | not in this set |
Pipeline capacity and projects | documented | not in this set |
Weekly working gas in underground storage | documented | not in this set |
Delivered consumption and consumer counts | documented | not in this set |
Number of natural gas consumers by state and sector | not in this set | documented |
Sales consumers (bundled supply) | not in this set | documented |
Transported consumers (third-party supply) | not in this set | documented |
Coverage, side by side
| EIA Natural Gas Data Portal | EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | `area` enum - US total, Federal Offshore Gulf of America, states, companies | Area selector - US total, all 50 states and DC |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| EIA Natural Gas Data Portal | EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State | |
|---|---|---|
| Series identity | `series / Sourcekey` (e.g. `NG_SUM_LSUM_DCU_NUS_M`) | `Sourcekey` carried in the history sheets (e.g. `NA1501_NUS_8`) |
| Period stamp | `period` - YYYY annual, YYYYMM monthly, week-ending dates | `Date` - annual rows stamped end-June in the history sheets |
| Observed quantity | `value`, units declared per series - million cubic feet volumes, nominal dollars per thousand cubic feet | Named measure columns - customer counts, volumes, thousand cubic feet per consumer |
| Geography | `area` enum - US total, Federal Offshore Gulf of America, states, companies | Area selector - US total, all 50 states and DC |
| End-use sector | `sector` enum - residential, commercial, industrial, vehicle fuel, electric power, lease and plant fuel, pipeline and distribution use | Row groups - Residential, Commercial, Industrial |
| Documentation status | Field definitions inferred | Field definitions verified |
What each does better
EIA Natural Gas Data Portal
Hundreds of distinct series families ride behind one consistent identity scheme.
Company-level detail. Through Form EIA-176 products the portal reaches below the state line to individual filers - the layer where a distribution company's own book of customers actually lives.
Infrastructure context. Pipeline maps, capacity tables and quarterly liquefaction capacity sit beside the flow numbers, so a supply-shock analysis never has to leave the record.
Cross-industry reach. The portal tags multi-utilities as a secondary industry, widening its pull beyond the gas lane - one reason it scores the rubric's maximum 10/10.
EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State
The only customer-count record in the slice. Across all 16 Gas Utilities datasets, nothing else counts consumers directly. Residential, commercial and industrial customer counts arrive as first-class series - and the captured history shows the shape: 47,710,444 US residential consumers in 1987, 48,474,449 in 1988, 49,309,593 in 1989.
Sales versus transported, the retail-choice split. Each sector separates customers who buy gas from the company that delivered it from customers who buy from a third-party supplier - competition between bundled and unbundled service, measured rather than modeled, back to 1997-1998. Average Consumption per Consumer completes the picture in thousand cubic feet per customer.
Depth where it counts most. Commercial average consumption runs from 1967, industrial averages from 1973, residential consumer counts from 1987 - multi-decade customer histories no aggregate balance can substitute for.
Documented honesty. Definitions are verified, and the caveats are stated inside the record: agricultural gas use reclassified from commercial to industrial beginning in 1996, and expected double counting in residential and commercial customer counts reported from 1999 onward where companies filed both bundled and transportation-only relationships. Cleaning rules you would otherwise have to guess at come written down. See Form EIA-176 and EIA dnav series pages.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit. Let the unit of analysis decide. If your unit is a molecule or a dollar - a supply balance, a citygate spread, a storage deviation against the Henry Hub curve, a reserve life - EIA Natural Gas Data Portal is the instrument shaped for it, and nothing else in the catalog spans that much of the domain from one place.
The scores do not settle it: a 10/10 catalog and a 9/10 table family win on different questions. Cut each sample to the states, sectors and years you actually model, and let the returned rows make the call.
Sample both, pick by fit. See EIA Natural Gas Data Portal · See EIA Natural Gas Consumers, Deliveries and Prices by State
Fair questions
Which dataset reaches further back in time?
By measure, the dnav tables: commercial average consumption from 1967, industrial averages from 1973, residential consumer counts from 1987, sales and transported splits from 1997-1998.
Do both datasets cover every US state?
Yes, at different perimeters. The dnav tables cover the US total, all 50 states and DC through an area selector - 51 areas per measure. The portal covers the same states and adds Federal Offshore Gulf of America, import/export points of entry and exit, shale plays, top fields and company-level Form EIA-176 filers.
Do the two datasets overlap anywhere?
On consumption. The portal's Consumption section carries total and delivered consumption, consumer counts and state shares; the dnav tables publish those consumer counts as their headline measure, split by sales versus transported. Both trace to Form EIA-176 filings, so figures reconcile between the two records.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes. Either record arrives alone or merged onto one delivery calendar, aligned on area, sector and period codes so the join lands done - delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Name the states, sectors and measures when you request the sample and it arrives pre-cut with field definitions and coverage profiles attached.