[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 62 (Monday, April 3, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16178-16180]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-06527]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

 Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension

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

ACTION: Agency information collection activities: Information 
collection extension, with changes; notice and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: EIA, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, intends 
to submit an information collection request for the Petroleum Marketing 
Program, OMB Control Number 1905-0174, to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB). EIA is requesting a three-year extension to the program 
and soliciting comments on the proposed changes to Form EIA-182, Form 
EIA-863, Form EIA-878, Form EIA-888, and Form EIA-877. No changes are 
proposed for the remaining survey forms that comprise the Petroleum 
Marketing Program.

DATES: Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be 
received on or before June 2, 2017. If you anticipate difficulty in 
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in 
ADDRESSES as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to Ms. Tammy Heppner, U.S. 
Department of Energy, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Mail Stop 
EI-25, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 
20585. To ensure receipt of the comments by the due date, submission by 
email ([email protected]) is recommended. Alternatively, Ms. 
Heppner may be contacted by telephone at 202-586-4748.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to Ms. Tammy Heppner at the contact information listed 
above. The forms and instructions, along with related information on 
this clearance

[[Page 16179]]

package, can be viewed at http://www.eia.gov/survey/notice/marketing2017.cfm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Petroleum Marketing Program consists of 
the following surveys:
     EIA-14, ``Refiners' Monthly Cost Report;''
     EIA-182, ``Domestic Crude Oil First Purchase Report;''
     EIA-782A, ``Refiners'/Gas Plant Operators' Monthly 
Petroleum Product Sales Report;''
     EIA-782C, ``Monthly Report of Prime Supplier Sales of 
Petroleum Products Sold For Local Consumption;''
     EIA-821, ``Annual Fuel Oil and Kerosene Sales Report;''
     EIA-856, ``Monthly Foreign Crude Oil Acquisition Report;''
     EIA-863, ``Petroleum Product Sales Identification 
Survey;''
     EIA-877, ``Winter Heating Fuels Telephone Survey;''
     EIA-878, ``Motor Gasoline Price Survey;''
     EIA-888, ``On-Highway Diesel Fuel Price Survey.''
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.
    This information collection request contains: (1) OMB No. 1905-
0174; (2) Information Collection Request Title: Petroleum Marketing 
Program; (3) Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved 
collection; (4) Purpose: The Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 
(15 U.S.C. 761 et seq.) and the DOE Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7101 et 
seq.) require 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.
    EIA, as part of its effort to comply with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.), provides the general public and 
other Federal agencies with opportunities to comment on collections of 
energy information conducted by or in conjunction with EIA. Also, EIA 
will 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.
    EIA's petroleum marketing survey forms collect volumetric and price 
information needed for determining the supply of and demand for crude 
oil and refined petroleum products. These surveys provide a basic set 
of data pertaining to the structure, efficiency, and behavior of 
petroleum markets. These data are published by EIA on its Web site, 
http://www.eia.gov, as well as in publications such as the Monthly 
Energy Review (http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/), Annual 
Energy Review (http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/), Petroleum 
Marketing Monthly (http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/petroleum_marketing_monthly/pmm.html), Weekly 
Petroleum Status Report (http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html), and the 
International Energy Outlook (http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/); (4a) 
Proposed Changes to Information Collection:

Form EIA-878: Motor Gasoline Price Survey

    EIA is proposing to collect annual sales volumes of motor gasoline 
by regular, midgrade, and premium grades on Form EIA-878, ``Motor 
Gasoline Price Survey'' on a triennial basis. This survey collects 
weekly retail gasoline prices from a sample of gasoline stations and 
publishes price estimates at various regional, state, and city levels. 
EIA is updating its frame of retail gasoline outlets and proposing to 
re-select the sample of retail outlets using a new sample design. EIA 
will use annual sales volumes of motor gasoline to determine the 
measure of size and weights for the new outlets selected to report in 
the sample. EIA will obtain annual sales volume from corporate offices 
of suppliers of whole sale and retail gasoline, hypermarkets, and 
individual station owners in the sample. The new sample will replace 
the current sample that reports on Form EIA-878. In the alternative, 
EIA is also considering to eliminate this survey due to budget 
constraints. In the event this survey is eliminated EIA may utilize 
third party price data for information on retail gasoline prices. EIA 
solicits comments on both proposals, to select a new sample using 
annual retail sales volumes as the sample weights; or discontinue Form 
EIA-878.

Form EIA-182: Domestic Crude Oil First Purchase Report

    EIA is proposing to replace ``North Dakota Sweet'' crude stream 
with ``North Dakota Bakken'' crude stream on Form EIA-182, ``Domestic 
Crude Oil First Purchase Report.'' Due to increased crude oil 
production of the Bakken crude steam, this replacement will provide 
more accurate price estimates for an important domestic crude stream.

Forms EIA-863, EIA-878, and EIA-888

    EIA proposes a permanent change in its statistical confidentiality 
pledge to respondents to Forms EIA-863, EIA-878, and EIA-888. EIA 
revised its confidentiality pledge to respondents to Forms EIA-863, 
EIA-878, and EIA-888 in an emergency Federal Register notice released 
on January 12, 2017 in 82 FR 3764. These revisions were required by 
provisions of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (pub. 
L. 114-11, Division N. Title II Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This Act, among 
other provisions, permits and requires DHS to provide Federal civilian 
agencies' information technology systems with cybersecurity protection 
for their Internet traffic. Federal statistics provide key information 
that the Nation uses to measure its performance and make informed 
choices about budgets, energy, employment, health, investments, taxes, 
and a host of other significant topics. Strong and trusted 
confidentiality and exclusively statistical use pledges under the 
Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act 
(CIPSEA) and similar statistical confidentiality pledges are effective 
and necessary in honoring the trust that businesses, individuals, and 
institutions, by their responses, place in statistical agencies. In 
this notice EIA proposes to make this change permanent and use the 
following EIA statistical confidentiality pledge to protect information 
collected on Forms EIA-863, EIA-878, and EIA-888.

    ``The information you provide on this survey form will be used 
for statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. In 
accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and 
Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 and other applicable Federal 
laws, your responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form 
without your consent. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act 
of 2015, Federal information systems are protected from malicious 
activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. 
Every EIA employee, as well as every agent, is subject to a jail 
term, a fine, or both if he or she makes public ANY identifiable 
information you reported.''


[[Page 16180]]


    Data reported on Forms EIA-878 and EIA-888 are collected over the 
telephone. These two surveys have a shorter version of the CIPSEA 
pledge that is read to the respondent over the telephone. EIA is 
proposing to permanently modify the pledge provided to respondents over 
the telephone to read:

    The information you provide on Form EIA-xxx will be used for 
statistical purposes only. Your responses will be kept confidential 
and will not be disclosed in identifiable form. Per the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, Federal information systems 
are protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity 
screening of transmitted data. By law, every EIA employee, as well 
as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, or both if he or 
she makes public ANY identifiable information you reported.''

EIA-877: Winter Heating Fuels Telephone Survey

    EIA is proposing to add annual sales volumes of residential heating 
oil for statistical estimation purposes. This survey collects annual 
volumes of propane and residential heating oil and propane prices 
during the heating season. The accuracy of the price estimates of 
heating oil will improve by having annual volumes of heating oil as a 
reliable measure for calculating weighted average point-in-time price 
estimates. (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 10,578 
Respondents; (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 125,490; 
(7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 48,777 hours; (8) Annual 
Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $3,775,000. The cost 
of the burden hours is estimated to be $3,592,914 (48,777 burden hours 
times $73.66 per hour). EIA estimates that there are no additional 
costs to respondents associated with the surveys other than the costs 
associated with the burden hours.

    Authority: Section 13(b) of the Federal Energy Administration 
Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, codified as 15 U.S. C. 772(b).

    Issued in Washington, DC, on March 15, 2017.
Nanda Srinivasan,
Director, Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration, 
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2017-06527 Filed 3-31-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P