Letter to OMB for Clearance

Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 September 7 , 2010

Christine Kymn

Department of Energy Desk Officer

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

Washington, DC 20503

SUBJECT: Use of Generic Clearance for Energy Information Administration (EIA-882T(53), (approved under OMB number1905-0186) for cognitive testing for Form EIA-815, “Monthly Bulk Terminal and Blenders Report ").

Dear Ms. Kymn:

Form EIA-815 collects inputs and production data for finished motor gasoline and motor gasoline blending components at motor gasoline blending plants/terminals. The resulting statistics are used by public and private analysts to monitor the supply of finished motor gasoline and motor gasoline blending components.  Respondents are operators of all operating and idle petroleum refineries, or blending terminals located in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and other U.S. possessions.

Background EIA discontinued Form EIA-811, Monthly Bulk Terminal Report, at the end of calendar year 2009. Form EIA-815 now is EIA’s only source of data on Bulk Terminal operations. Before EIA discontinued Form EIA-811, Petroleum Division matched the state totals in each survey. There were discrepancies between the two data sets.

EIA has concerns about Form EIA-815 that it wants to clarify and resolve to be more confident in the validity and accuracy of Form EIA-815 data and inputs and production balance at the end of each month. These concerns include:

• Definition of bulk terminals

• Storage classification at bulk terminals

• Reporting of trans-shipment tanks – tanks used for storing petroleum products as part of a transfer from one bulk transfer mode to another.

• Reclassification of fuels or new fuels and the related topic of fuel blending

Proposed Pre-survey design visits: EIA wants to discuss these concerns with Form EIA-815 respondents. EIA plans to visit 15 EIA-815 respondents who have agreed in advance to participate in pre-survey design visits. We plan the testing to occur late summer or fall of 2010.

EIA may use the information collected from these visits to revise Form EIA-815 and its instructions in order to get more uniform and more accurate reporting on the survey.

Burden: Each respondent will need to do a half hour advanced preparation for the cognitive interview. Each interview itself will be about an hour. Total burden per respondent will be one and one half hour. Total overall burden will be 22.5 hours.

EIA will provide OMB with the results of these tests in the annual summary of generic clearances. Two documents included with this information collection request. They are the draft proposed Form EIA-815 and its instructions and a draft of the protocol that EIA will use during the visits.

For questions on the site visits, contact Richard Reeves (202) 586-5856.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Brown

Director

Statistics and Methods Group

Energy Information Administration

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