Automating Gas Nominations: From Daily Texts to Streamlined Workflows

If you've managed gas nominations, you know the drill. Daily text messages. Spreadsheets passed back and forth. Manual aggregation at the end of the month for billing. It works, but barely.

Let's look at how gas nominations actually work today, and what's possible when you apply modern software to the problem.

How Gas Nominations Work Now

The Daily Ritual

Every day, someone needs to communicate how much gas they're taking. For most operations, this looks like:

For upstream (taking gas from operators):

• Text message to your contact: "Taking 500 MCF today"
• Maybe an email if the operator is more formal
• Occasionally a portal login for larger midstream companies

For downstream (selling gas to consumers):

• Collect nominations from each buyer
• Aggregate the totals
• Forward the combined nomination upstream
• Track who nominated what for billing

This happens every single day. 365 days a year. Rain or shine.

The Monthly Reconciliation

At the end of each month, someone has to:

1. Pull all the daily nominations (from texts, emails, spreadsheets)
2. Match them against actual metered volumes
3. Calculate imbalances
4. Generate invoices for downstream consumers
5. Reconcile payments with upstream suppliers

This process typically involves:

• Scrolling through hundreds of text messages
• Cross-referencing multiple spreadsheets
• Manual data entry into accounting software
• Lots of opportunities for errors

Why It's Painful

The current approach fails in predictable ways:

• Lost messages - That nomination text from two weeks ago? Good luck finding it
• No audit trail - Who nominated what and when? Hope you kept screenshots
• Manual aggregation - Adding up nominations across multiple consumers takes time
• Billing delays - Manual reconciliation means invoices go out late
• Scaling problems - Works okay with 3 consumers, breaks down with 30

What Modern Nomination Management Looks Like

Send Nominations the Way Your Provider Expects

Different gas providers expect nominations in different formats:

• Some want a daily text message
• Some want an email with specific formatting
• Some want an Excel file attached
• Some have portals that accept uploads

A modern nomination system handles all of these. You enter your nomination once, and the system delivers it in whatever format your provider requires. Text, email, PDF, Excel - whatever they need.

Automated Upstream Nominations

Set up your nomination calendar once:

• Define your typical daily volume
• Set automatic sending times (provider gets the nomination at 8 AM, no manual intervention)
• Adjust when needed with a few clicks
• Track every nomination with timestamps and delivery confirmation

No more forgetting to send the daily text. No more weekend coverage gaps. The system handles the routine, you handle the exceptions.

Downstream Collection and Aggregation

If you're aggregating gas from multiple downstream consumers (common for GPA operations), the manual collection process is eliminated:

Old way:

1. Wait for texts/calls from each consumer
2. Write down each nomination
3. Add them up manually
4. Send aggregated nomination upstream
5. Track each consumer's share for billing

New way:

1. Downstream consumers enter nominations directly (or the system collects via their preferred method)
2. System automatically aggregates all nominations
3. Combined nomination forwards upstream automatically
4. Each consumer's share is tracked for billing

The aggregation happens in real-time. You see the combined nomination building throughout the day. No manual math, no missed inputs.

Billing That Doesn't Suck

When nominations are tracked digitally from day one:

• Monthly aggregation is instant (it's already in the system)
• Imbalance calculations are automatic
• Invoice generation takes minutes, not hours
• Payment tracking ties back to specific nomination periods

Your downstream consumers get accurate invoices faster. Your upstream suppliers get paid on time. Everyone's happy.

The Path Forward

Gas nominations don't have to be a daily chore managed through text messages and spreadsheets. The process is predictable enough to automate, and the benefits compound over time.

Start with upstream automation - get your daily nominations sending automatically. Then add downstream collection as you scale. The monthly billing improvements alone justify the switch.

Explore gas nomination management on Stranded Gas Pro and see how much time you could save.