Information on the Energy Information Administration's Financial Reporting System

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) original plans for developing its Financial Reporting System (FRS), the data and products of the FRS, and the system's current status.

GAO found that EIA originally planned for FRS to collect financial and operating data from major energy-producing companies and other sources, such as federal agencies and industry trade associations, to develop a profile of the energy industry by energy source, operating segment, and geographical area. To initiate FRS, EIA decided to collect data from the 26 major U.S. energy producers of 1976. Although EIA identified another 115 companies to include in FRS, data collection operations have not been expanded beyond the 26 companies originally included. Among the information sources used by FRS are corporate-wide income statements, balance sheets, and statements of sources and uses of funds. To date, FRS has produced a series of six reports on the performance of major energy producers and a report on development patterns of energy companies in the postembargo era. Currently, EIA has no plans for expanding data collection beyond the companies now reporting to FRS; however, the FRS team leader stated that EIA is continuing to study the feasibility of expanding the use of supplementary data sources in FRS reports.