[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 237 (Tuesday, December 9, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74713-74714]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-29086]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of Energy 
(DOE).

ACTION: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection 
Update; Informational.

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SUMMARY: The EIA issued a Proposed Collection Comment Request on 
``Report of Refinery Outages,'' 73 FR 10745, Thursday, February 28, 
2008. EIA is postponing a decision on pursuing this survey until spring 
2009. This notice is an informational update on the reason for EIA's 
postponement of decision and EIA's activities in this area.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joanne Shore by e-mail at 
[email protected] or by telephone at 202-586-4677.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    EIA recognizes the importance of understanding and anticipating 
supply changes that could add to already high prices being paid by 
consumers for petroleum products. Refinery availability is an important 
element of this issue, and was highlighted in Section 804 of the Energy 
Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-140), requiring EIA 
to assess the impact of planned outages using commercially available 
data. Before EIA could implement Section 804, Congressional interest 
increased in having EIA collect such data, partially as a result of 
unusually high refinery outages in 2007. In response, EIA put out a 
Federal Register notice on February 2008 (Proposed Collection Comment 
Request on ``Report of Refinery Outages,'' 73 FR 10745, Thursday, 
February 28, 2008) to solicit comments on collecting such data. The EIA 
data collection would be an enhancement to the monthly refinery survey 
(Form EIA-810). In addition, the Department of Energy's Office of 
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) put out a Federal 
Register notice in July 2008 (Notice and Request for Comments on 
Proposal for a Refinery Disruption and Incident Report, 73-FR 37451, 
July 1, 2008, http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/FRN_RefDisrupt070108.pdf) to collect complementary after-the-fact outage 
information on a short-term, real-time basis in order to monitor 
ongoing issues as part of its role in monitoring potential supply 
emergencies. A second Federal Register notice on this proposed 
emergency report was published on November 5, 2008, taking into 
consideration comments received after the first notice. Public comments 
are being solicited through December 5, 2008, on the proposed emergency 
form and instructions (Proposed Agency Information Collection, 73-FR 
65841, November 5, 2008, http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/FRN_RefDisrupt110508.pdf). EIA's data collection on planned outages would 
necessarily be prospective, but any historical outage information in an 
EIA survey would ultimately reflect those reported in the proposed DOE 
Refinery Emergency Disruption and Incident Report.
    Prior to the February 2008 EIA Federal Register Notice, EIA had 
looked at potentially collecting outage data or alternatively using 
commercial data. EIA's review of commercial outage data indicated that 
such data is relatively comprehensive. It captures most significant 
outages; contains unit-by-unit outages for individual refineries 
(thereby serving many State-specific informational needs as well as 
Federal needs for estimating supply impacts); and may be able to be 
shared in a useable form with State energy officials more economically 
than a government survey. However, the commercial data does not contain 
production impacts.
    A government data collection would more likely capture all refinery 
outage plans, but differences from commercial data may be small. 
Government-collected data could potentially have greater credibility 
and could add information on potential impacts on product output. 
However, government collection would cost the Federal government more 
than using commercial data and would take several years of data to 
accumulate adequate history to be useful.
    In addition to cost considerations, data quality differences 
between commercial data and an EIA collection must be considered. EIA 
does not currently collect planned refinery unit outages. Rather, 
outages are reflected retrospectively in EIA's historical inputs to 
major refinery units, although there is no distinction between planned 
and unplanned outages, or between outages as a whole and economically-
driven utilization decisions in the refinery input data. However, 
commercial data is available that reflects planned unit outages, as 
well as unplanned and planned historical outages.
    Reporting planning information is not the same as reporting 
historical data. While an EIA data collection could be somewhat more 
accurate than a commercial data source, EIA's experience with 
collecting ``planned'' activities is that such data inherently have an 
element of uncertainty because plans shift and actual maintenance may 
take more or less time than planned.
    Commercial data does not contain impacts of outages on production, 
although some private firms estimate aggregate impacts from outages. 
EIA

[[Page 74714]]

already collects data on historical inputs to major refinery processing 
units. As outages occur, unit inputs decline. EIA has used these data 
to estimate outage impacts on production. If EIA were to collect 
refinery estimates of planned unit outage impacts on production, 
results still would be uncertain, would involve different methods of 
estimation by different refiners, and would only provide an indicator 
of supply changes. Having EIA specify estimation methods for 
determining planned outage impacts on production would not necessarily 
improve the accuracy, as different methods may be appropriate for 
different refinery situations. Whether using commercial data or 
government-collected data, EIA will have to do extensive analyses to 
make a supply-adequacy determination. That is, one data option will not 
provide savings in analytical effort over the other option.
    The responses to the EIA Federal Register notice did not shed 
further light on EIA's earlier assessment. The comments opposing 
government data collection questioned the usefulness of the data in 
affecting the market, difficulties in obtaining consistent information, 
and the large burden needed to respond. Comments supporting the 
collection felt the information would be helpful in preparing States or 
regions for potential supply problems and noted commercial data is not 
readily available to States or the public. Comments on both sides noted 
that if a survey is proposed, more clarification on information to be 
collected is needed.

II. Current Actions

    EIA could not begin a refinery outage data collection before 2010. 
The approval process and time needed for both industry and the 
government to make appropriate systems changes preclude a 2009 
collection. Furthermore, EIA's resources are fully engaged in changing 
forms to meet EPACT 2005 requirements and other changes.
    The retrospective real-time survey of refinery outages, first 
proposed by DOE in its July Federal Register notice, could meet some of 
the needs listed in the comments made by the National Association of 
State Energy Officials (NASEO) in response to EIA's comment request. 
However, the revised form in DOE's subsequent (November) Federal 
Register notice no longer seeks to collect information on actions 
taken, units or processes affected, and estimated production impacts. 
Also, NASEO was not familiar with the extent of commercially available 
data. It may be more cost-effective for the Federal government to pay 
for State access to commercial information than to collect it itself.
    Since EIA is moving ahead to produce reports on planned outages 
using commercial data, and since it is not possible to begin a new 
collection immediately, EIA proposes to postpone a decision on this 
data collection until spring 2009. This will allow some additional time 
to assess the adequacy of the commercial data and EIA's analysis using 
that data to meet State and Congressional concerns. It also will 
provide the time for DOE to finalize its emergency report survey, 
providing EIA with the information to determine which State and 
Congressional concerns the DOE survey may ultimately address. Last, a 
spring decision date will give EIA more time to revisit potential 
government survey costs and industry burden associated with a 
government collection. In the interim, EIA will work with the Congress 
and the States (the latter through the NASEO) to determine if existing 
information and associated analyses can be used to meet their needs.
    Should the EIA determine a survey is necessary, a Federal Register 
notice will be issued with the proposed survey form and another 
opportunity for comments will be provided. A survey proposal would fall 
under the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-275, 15 
U.S.C. 761 et seq.) and the DOE Organization Act (Pub. L. 95-91, 42 
U.S.C. 7101 et seq.), which require the EIA to carry out a centralized, 
comprehensive, and unified energy information program. This program 
collects, evaluates, assembles, analyzes, and disseminates information 
on energy resource reserves, production, demand, technology, and 
related economic and statistical information. This information is used 
to assess the adequacy of energy resources to meet near- and longer-
term domestic demands.
    The EIA, as part of its effort to comply with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), provides 
the general public and other Federal agencies with opportunities to 
comment on collections of energy information conducted by or in 
conjunction with the EIA. Any comments received following a survey 
proposal help the EIA prepare data requests that maximize the utility 
of the information collected, and to assess the impact of collection 
requirements on the public. Also, the EIA would later seek approval for 
this collection by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under 
Section 3507(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

    Issued in Washington, DC, December 2, 2008.
Patricia Breed,
Executive Assistant, Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. E8-29086 Filed 12-8-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P