Federal obligations in natural gas distribution (NAICS 221210)

Reading the $1.27 billion 221210 obligation total

When a contracting officer codes an award to 221210, USAspending stores that NAICS on the action and SpendingVault rolls the obligations into this industry. The current rollup is $1,272,251,552.75. That number moves when new awards post or when modifications change obligated amounts. It does not represent barrels, therms, or cubic feet delivered; those physical units are not in the packet facts and are not inferred here.

Obligations are not outlays. A utility services contract can obligate a multi-year distribution or commodity arrangement while invoices hit later. Anyone comparing this industry to an agency’s cash budget should keep the two ledgers apart. The 2,077-award count is the number of tagged contract actions in the extract, including the mix of new awards and modifications that USAspending treats as separate rows in some files.

2,077 awards versus neighboring energy codes

Two thousand seventy-seven actions against $1,272,251,552.75 averages about $613,000 per award. That sits between high-volume parts catalogs and three-award mega-contracts. Federal campuses, laboratories, and installations buy gas distribution services and related utility work in many local instruments rather than one national pipeline award. The average is a back-of-envelope check, not a typical invoice; the industry table is the distribution.

Do not fold 221210 into “all energy spending.” Electric generation, oil and gas extraction, and pipeline transportation of natural gas are different NAICS families. This page’s $1,272,251,552.75 is only distribution as coded. Cross-industry sums require care so the same award is not counted twice if a reader also totals a parent agency.

What natural gas distribution means on a federal award

Census NAICS 221210 is the local distribution company industry: operating gas mains and selling gas to end users through that network. Federal contracts in the code can be utility service agreements, work on government-owned distribution assets, or related vendor services classified under this industry. A producer selling wellhead gas, or a long-distance pipeline operator, should generally be coded elsewhere. Mis-tags happen; the 2,077 rows are “as coded,” not a forensic reclassification.

Because grants may not carry NAICS, weatherization or state energy-program assistance will usually miss this rollup. If the research question is household energy aid, start with CFDA program pages. If the question is contract obligations tagged to gas distribution establishments, $1,272,251,552.75 on 2,077 awards is the headline pair.

A complete citation of this industry is $1,272,251,552.75 in USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 221210, natural gas distribution, on 2,077 awards. Anything less—dropping the NAICS, dropping the word obligations, or dropping the contract-only universe—overstates what the extract contains. The packet facts do not include a fiscal year, so this guide does not invent one. Live tables on the industry hub can move when USAspending posts modifications; the harvested pair remains $1,272,251,552.75 and 2,077.

Source, units, and the industry directory

Source for both facts is USAspending.gov contract awards. SpendingVault does not convert obligations to outlays on this guide. The natural gas distribution industry page is the overlay target: open it for award-level detail. The all-industries directory sits beside it for neighboring utility codes. Internal links on this file point only to those two hrefs.

Classification errors are expected at the margin. Vendors that straddle wellhead production, long-haul pipelines, and electric generation may land in 221210 on some actions and in a neighbor on others. Other electric power generation (221118) is a generation residual, not a gas-mains industry. The public-record stance is to keep $1,272,251,552.75 attached to 221210 as tagged, then inspect whether campus utility agreements or installation-level buys drive the 2,077 actions. Re-tagging the extract by hand is out of scope for this overlay.

What this guide does not claim

No fiscal year, agency rank, or top recipient is stated here because those fields are not in the packet. No volume of gas, no carbon figure, and no “waste” or “need” judgment. The public record in this extract is $1,272,251,552.75 obligated and 2,077 awards coded 221210. Everything else belongs in the live tables or in a different dataset.

Distribution tags are not a fuel-volume ledger

Award count interprets the buying pattern. 2,077 actions producing $1,272,251,552.75 is local utility-service instruments rather than one national pipeline award, with about $613,000 per action as the simple average. That average hides mix: modifications, options, and delivery orders all increment count. 2,077 is not a count of unique companies and not a count of physical units. Use the hub amount sort to see whether a few large rows plus a long tail make up most of the tagged total.

Outlays remain a separate USAspending concept. An agency can obligate $1,272,251,552.75 across 2,077 tagged natural gas distribution actions and pay on a different calendar. De-obligations after cancellations reduce the obligation ledger; they do not rewrite the fact that this NAICS has been a large tagged category in the harvest. Assistance without NAICS still sits outside even when the real-world activity looks similar. Program pages answer the grant question; this page answers the tagged-contract question.

Internal links on this file point only to the natural gas distribution industry page and the all-industries directory. Those are the packet hrefs. Neighboring industry codes mentioned in prose are classification context only. Source note, copied from the packet: NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. The overlay’s job is to state $1,272,251,552.75, 2,077, the obligation unit, and the boundary around wellhead production, long-haul pipelines, and electric generation.

Questions

How much has the federal government obligated on natural gas distribution contracts?

USAspending contract awards coded to NAICS 221210 total $1,272,251,552.75 in obligations across 2,077 awards. That is not production spending and not electric utility spending. Assistance without a NAICS code is outside the total. Quote it as USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 221210, not as cash outlays. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grants remain outside the 2,077-award extract behind $1,272,251,552.75.

Does 221210 include natural gas production or pipelines?

The industry name is natural gas distribution—local mains and end-user distribution—not extraction and not long-haul pipeline transportation, which use other NAICS. This page’s $1,272,251,552.75 follows the 221210 tag on contract actions. Check award descriptions on the industry hub if a specific action looks miscoded.

Are these natural gas dollars already paid out?

The $1,272,251,552.75 is obligations, the amount committed on tagged contracts. Outlays are payments and can differ in timing and amount after modifications. USAspending publishes both concepts; this industry guide cites obligations only, matching the packet facts. That pattern is local utility-service instruments rather than one national pipeline award, with about $613,000 per action as the simple average of $1,272,251,552.75 over 2,077 awards. Inspect whether campus utility agreements or installation-level buys drive the 2,077 actions.

Where do I list the 2,077 natural gas distribution awards?

On the NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION industry page, which is built from the same USAspending contract extract. This guide states the two packet facts and the NAICS boundary. It does not add recipient names or yearly splits that are not in the facts object.