| US Customs Reporting |
Northern Border Pipeline sends a report monthly to the Department of Homeland Security (U.S. Customs) for all
gas that crosses the Canadian/US border at Port of Morgan, Montana from the pipeline interconnect between
Foothills Pipeline and Northern Border Pipeline. That report includes (1) the Canadian supplier on Foothills
Pipeline, (2) the U.S. shipper on Northern Border Pipeline, (3) a calculated Mcf @ 14.73 and (4) a conversion of
that amount to 103M3 metric volumes.
The NASEB industry standard mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for all gas
transportation is Dekatherms (Dth) (or Gigajoules for metric) – both of which reflect energy units. Volume
quantities such as Mcf @ 14.73 or 103M3 are not available for scheduled gas amounts. To get to the 103M3
numbers required by US Customs, you have to introduce a BTU factor. Various methodologies are being used
to come up with a BTU factor, so there are discrepancies in the amounts reported to US Customs by the
pipelines and the shippers. In a perfect world, there would be no discrepancies in what is reported to US
Customs if we were all allowed to report the same energy units used in the gas scheduling process, but until US
Customs changes their requirements discrepancies will continue. In an attempt to decrease the amount of
discrepancies and questions we receive, following is information on how NBPL does this calculation.
Northern Border Pipeline’s Calculation of 103M3 Reported to US Customs
Northern Border uses the average monthly BTU of gas measured at Port of Morgan, MT to calculate the 103M3
amounts reported to US Customs. Following is the formula that is used:
Shipper’s Scheduled Dth’s at Port of Morgan, MT / Average Monthly Measured BTU at Port of Morgan =
Mcf @ 14.73
Mcf @ 14.73 * .02832784 (conversion factor in Section 4.15 of GT&C in NBPL Tariff) = 103M3
We provide all NBPL shippers the calculated 103M3 reported to US Customs for each contract in the NBPL
invoice package each month, which can be accessed on our secured Customer Activities website (requires login
ID and password).
On the Customer Activities website choose Invoicing, Invoices, to retrieve your company’s invoice package.
Included in the package for each individual contract is a report titled “Shipper Imbalance Report” (TASR0510 in
the top right hand corner) which shows the 103M3 volumes reported to U.S. Customs at the bottom of the report
on the right hand side (see current format below). The invoice package is available for retrieval around the fifth
or sixth work day for the prior month’s business .
Calculation of BTU’s Used by Northern Border in US Customs Calculation
If you need to determine the BTU used by Northern Border for a month in the past, here is an example of how to
do that using the information from the Shipper Imbalance Report:
103M3 Volume on the Shipper Imbalance Report / .02832784 Conversion Factor = Mcf @ 14.73
Total Scheduled Quantity at Port of Morgan in Dth / Mcf @ 14.73 = BTU used for US Customs
calculation
Until such time as we can add more detailed US Customs information to our Shipper Imbalance Report, our
Customer Activities website, and the report we send to US Customs, we will provide the monthly BTU’s used to
calculate the 103M3 for US Customs each month for 2009 forward:
Month
February 2015
March 2015
April 2015
May 2015
June 2015
July 2015
August 2015
September 2015
Customs BTU
1.0281
1.0247
1.0376
1.0298
1.0551
1.0375
1.0236
1.0247
October 2015
November 2015
December 2015
January 2016
1.0306
1.0363
1.0222
1.0261
The Customs BTU factor will be available via this website on either the first or second work day of the
month.
If you have any questions on Northern Border Pipeline's U.S. Customs reporting, please call Bonnie Fournier
(832) 320-5422 or Kay Dennison (832) 320-5336.