A nomination is a request to move gas from one location to another under a specific contract with a pipeline. It may be made prior to the day of gas flow or at specific times during the flow day. Nominations indicate points of receipt and delivery, the contract number under which the gas is to flow on the pipeline on which it was nominated, the contract number on which the gas is to flow for the upstream (and if appropriate the downstream) pipeline, and the volume of gas to be moved.
Once the pipeline scheduling group receives the nomination, it confirms the upstream source and the downstream recipient to ensure that the nomination matches gas that the pipeline will receive from or deliver to. The scheduling group also checks the availability of capacity to ensure that all nominations will be able to flow. If demand for service along a specific path exceeds capacity, priority rules are used to schedule higher priority nominations while lower priority nominations are trimmed or rejected. After all gas has been scheduled, nominations are confirmed back to customers via scheduling reports.