[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 250 (Thursday, December 31, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69334-69335]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-31033]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection 
Update; Informational

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, followed by an Informational Update, 73 FR 74713, Tuesday, 
December 9, 2008, indicating EIA's postponement of a decision to 
collect refinery outage data. EIA has determined that collection of 
this data is necessary to meet the intent of Section 804 of the Energy 
Independence and Security Act of 2007.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background
II. Current Actions

I. Background

    EIA recognizes the importance of understanding and anticipating 
supply changes that could affect prices 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. 
Congressional interest in having EIA collect such data was partially a 
result of unusually high refinery outages in 2007.
    In response, EIA put out a Federal Register notice in 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. This was followed by an informational Federal 
Register notice in December 2008 (Proposed Collection Update, 73 FR 
74713, Tuesday, December 9, 2008) that provided the status of our 
review of this issue.
    For about two years, EIA has been using commercially available 
refinery outage data and evaluating its ability to meet the intent of 
Section 804. As summarized in the December 2008 Federal Register 
notice, commercial data captures significant outages and is cost-
effective, while government collection is likely more accurate and 
could address production impacts as well as unit outages, albeit at a 
higher cost both to industry and the government.
    EIA's evaluation indicates that commercial data is useful and 
appropriate for many purposes, but it falls short in two areas 
regarding EIA's ability to meet the Section 804 requirements. First, 
commercial data sometimes misses a planned outage, picking it up 
shortly before or even after the outage begins. This is in part due to 
commercial data being accumulated

[[Page 69335]]

from third party sources and voluntary company information rather than 
a required company survey such as EIA would conduct. As a result, 
commercial data can miss plans for an outage since some companies want 
and are able to keep their information private due to business 
sensitivities concerning certain outages. EIA needs to know about 
planned outages at least 3 or 4 months prior to their occurrence in 
order to assess any significant supply or price impacts and to provide 
information to the Secretary of Energy in a timely fashion. Missing a 
planned outage until shortly before it is scheduled to happen can lead 
to erroneous conclusions about its impacts in the larger context of the 
petroleum market.
    Second, commercially available outage data does not include 
estimates of the production impacts of planned outages, only whether a 
unit will be offline. Production changes resulting from unit outages 
are needed to evaluate impacts on petroleum product prices. Currently 
EIA estimates production impacts using both the commercial unit outage 
information and historical EIA refinery data. As noted in the December 
2008 Federal Register notice, any refinery estimates of planned unit 
outage impacts on production provided to EIA would not be precise.
    The EIA December 2008 Federal Register notice also indicated that 
the Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy 
Reliability (OE) was intending to collect unplanned outage information 
on a real-time basis in order to monitor ongoing issues as part of its 
role in monitoring potential supply disruptions and emergencies. This 
survey proposal has been withdrawn due to a change in OE's policy and 
operations. The proposal would not have served the purpose of 
collecting information on planned outages.

II. Current Actions

    EIA has determined that it should pursue the collection of data 
monthly on planned and unplanned refinery outages and on estimates of 
associated production losses. Because of the complexity of this 
collection, EIA will work with industry to determine how best to 
collect the information needed and what the potential costs will be. 
Parties interested in participating in these discussions should contact 
Joanne Shore ([email protected]). EIA plans on issuing a Federal 
Register notice in 2010 with a proposed survey form, providing another 
opportunity for comments. EIA will then request approval from the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The intent is to begin 
collection in 2011.
    EIA will continue to use commercial data. Commercial data provide a 
historical context for analyzing outages and can assist in data 
validation. Eventually, the EIA data collection will generate a 
historical series, but adequate time series for analysis will not be 
available for some time. In addition, commercial data are updated daily 
and can provide alerts for rapidly evolving events in between EIA data 
collections.
    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, analyzes, 
and disseminates information on energy resource reserves, production, 
demand, prices, 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, and to promote 
sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of 
energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.
    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 to prepare data requests that maximize the 
utility of the information collected, and to assess the impact of 
collection requirements on the public.
    After assembling public response to a Federal Register notice 
announcing specific survey information to be collected, including the 
proposed survey form, EIA will seek approval for this collection from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Section 3507(a) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

    Issued in Washington, DC, December 24, 2009.
Howard Gruenspecht,
Deputy Administrator, Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. E9-31033 Filed 12-30-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P