[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 107 (Friday, June 3, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35763-35766]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-11967]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0204; FRL-9946-70-OAR]
Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request;
Information Collection Effort for Oil and Gas Facilities
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to
submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Information
Collection Effort for Oil and Gas Facilities'' (EPA ICR No. 2548.01,
OMB Control No. 2060-NEW) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Before doing so, the EPA is soliciting
public comments on specific aspects of the proposed information
collection as described below. This is a request for approval of a new
collection of information. An Agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a
person is not required to respond to, a collection of information
unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before August 2, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2016-0204, online using http://www.regulations.gov (our preferred
method), or by mail to: EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Environmental
Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.,
Washington, DC 20460.
EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the
public docket without change including any personal information
provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Brenda Shine, Sector Policies and
Programs Division, Refining and Chemicals Group (E143-01), Office of
Air Quality Planning and Standards, Environmental Protection Agency,
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: (919) 541-3608; fax
number: (919) 541-0246; email address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail
the information that the EPA will be collecting are available in the
public docket for this notice. The docket can be viewed online at
http://www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center (EPA/
DC, EPA WJC West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW.,
Washington, DC. The telephone number for the Docket Center is 202-566-
1742. The telephone number for the public reading room is 202-566-1744.
For additional information about EPA's public docket, visit http://www.epa.gov/dockets.
Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the EPA is soliciting
comments and information to enable it to: (i) Evaluate whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the Agency, including whether the
information will have practical utility; (ii) evaluate 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; (iii) enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (iv) minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who are to respond, including
through the use of appropriate automated electronic, mechanical, or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information
technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses. The
EPA will consider the comments received and may amend the ICR as
appropriate. The final ICR package will then be submitted to OMB for
review and approval. At that time, the EPA will issue another Federal
Register notice to announce the submission of the ICR to OMB and the
opportunity to submit additional comments to OMB.
Abstract: Collectively, oil and gas facilities are the largest
industrial emitters of methane in the U.S. In January 2015, as part of
the Obama Administration's commitment to addressing climate change, the
EPA outlined a number of steps it plans to take to address methane and
smog-forming volatile organic compound
[[Page 35764]]
(VOC) emissions from the oil and gas industry. Concurrently with this
action, the EPA has promulgated new source performance standards (NSPS)
for the oil and gas industry to achieve both methane reductions and
additional reductions in VOCs (40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOa). The EPA
has also committed to require standards of performance for existing oil
and gas sources. Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), as amended,
provides a cooperative federalism approach to establishing standards of
performance for existing sources. Under this approach, the EPA
establishes guidelines that identify the emission performance states
must require their sources to achieve, and states then submit plans for
EPA review and approval, which establish standards of performance that
achieve that emissions performance.
While a great deal of information is available on the oil and gas
industry and has to date provided a strong technical foundation to
support the Agency's recent actions, the EPA is now seeking more
specific information that would be of critical use in addressing CAA
section 111(d). Taking into account the large number of sources that a
national regulation development effort would need to consider, and the
potential for taking a different approach to addressing co-located
existing sources than was taken with new and modified sources, the EPA
requires information that will enable the development of effective
standards for this entire industry under CAA section 111(d). For new
sources, the CAA requires that standards apply to each new affected
facility upon startup. Conversely, without information allowing for
development of a pathway for phasing in standards, existing source
standards will likely apply to all regulated units at approximately the
same time. Currently there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of
equipment across the country in all kinds of different situations and
configurations. To determine how to efficiently and effectively address
emissions from this volume of sources in a timely, but administrable
manner, we need more comprehensive information that will improve our
understanding of what emission controls are being used (and perhaps
shared) in the field, how those are configured, the difficulty of
replacing or upgrading controls, how much time will be needed to
retrofit, what the likely costs of retrofitting are, whether
electricity or generating capacity is available, and how often sites
are staffed or visited. Such information will, for example, allow us to
ascertain if there are effective ways for affected facilities at well
sites, or other co-located facilities, to share emission controls, how
to balance the level of emission reductions with administering a
program of this size, and potential phase in opportunities. Additional
information will also support the Agency's effort to explore proposing
standards for new and modified units not currently covered by NSPS
OOOOa. Specifically, before proposing standards the EPA must assure
that it has adequate information to determine ``the best system of
emission reduction which (taking into account the cost of achieving
such reduction and any nonair quality health and environmental impact
and energy requirement) the Administrator determines has been
adequately demonstrated,'' (BSER) as well as the ``degree of emission
limitation achievable through the application of'' such system.
Currently, the EPA collects information on the greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions from oil and gas facilities under 40 CFR part 98, subpart W,
of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP). However, the GHGRP
does not collect information on design, performance, and costs of
emission controls. Such information is necessary to evaluate the scope,
design, and potential impact of future standards of performance for
existing oil and gas facility sources. There are also differences in
the definition of ``facility'' in the GHGRP for oil and gas production
facilities as compared to the way we have defined facility under our
regulations. As previously stated, ``the EPA's definition of `facility'
for purposes of 40 CFR part 98 in no way impacts the `facility'
definition for similar sources under existing CAA programs.'' 80 FR
64262, 64271. Additionally, certain states have moved forward with
their own rules and have developed information needed for their own
purposes, but this information is not sufficient for a national
rulemaking. Thus, it is necessary to collect specific information from
oil and gas production facilities both for existing sources and sources
not covered by the standards of performance for new and modified
sources to understand the number of affected facilities and to estimate
the facility-level impacts of potentially implementing existing source
standards of various designs.
There will be two parts to the information collection. Part 1,
referred to as the operator survey, is specifically designed to obtain
information from onshore oil and gas production facilities to better
understand the number and types of equipment at production facilities.
Part 1 seeks to collect facility-level information (e.g., facility
name, location, contact information, and number of wells, tanks, and
compressors) using the definition of facility commonly employed when
permitting new and existing sources (i.e., all buildings, equipment,
structures, and other stationary equipment that are located on one or
more contiguous or adjacent properties and that are under common
ownership or control). Part 1 will be sent to all known operators of
oil and gas production wells and will allow the Agency to obtain the
information necessary to identify and categorize all potentially
affected oil and gas production facilities. The operators will complete
the Part 1 survey, including providing equipment counts for all
production facilities that they operate with the exception of
facilities selected to complete Part 2. Part 1 is not expected to
contain any CBI. This operator survey may be submitted either
electronically or through hard copy responses. The submission requires
the owner or operator to certify that the information being provided is
accurate and complete.
Part 2, referred to as the detailed facility survey, will be sent
to selected oil and gas facilities across the different industry
segments. Specifically, these industry segments include onshore
production, gathering and boosting, processing, compression/
transmission, pipeline, natural gas storage, and liquefied natural gas
(LNG) storage and import/export facilities. This ICR will not collect
information from offshore production facilities or from local natural
gas distribution facilities. Due to the large number of potentially
affected facilities, Part 2 uses a statistical sampling method
considering each industry segment (and groupings of facilities in the
production segment) to be separate sampling populations. Thus, a
statistically significant number of facilities within each industry
segment (or ``population'') will be required to complete the Part 2
detailed facility survey.
Developing an appropriate sampling size for the onshore production
industry is complicated by the number of factors that could impact the
types of processes or equipment present at the site and the magnitude
of emissions from these sources. Therefore, the Agency considered
further stratification of the production industry segment into separate
populations based on differences in the type of well (oil or natural
gas, vertical or horizontal
[[Page 35765]]
drilling, or further distinctions based on gas-to-oil ratio), the type
of formation, and the production basin. At this time, the Agency has
limited information on means to characterize individual facilities or
wells by formation type or well drilling type (vertical versus
horizontal wells). However, the Agency does have estimates of the
number of wells in a given basin and has estimates of the gas-to-oil
ratio (GOR), from which we designate well type for nearly all wells.
Therefore, the Agency considered two options for establishing different
populations within the production segment: Option 1, which is based on
the well type using GOR ranges, and Option 2, which is based on
regional groupings of basins.
Option 1, which considers populations based on well types, defines
the following five populations based on GOR:
1. Heavy Oil (GOR <= 300 standard cubic feet per barrel, scf/bbl)
2. Light Oil (300 < GOR <= 100,000 scf/bbl)
3. Wet Gas (100,000 < GOR <= 1,000,000 scf/bbl)
4. Dry Gas (GOR > 1,000,000 scf/bbl)
5. Coal Bed Methane
Most of these well type categories have historical significance,
such as the GOR of 300 scf/bbl included in the applicability of the Oil
and Gas NSPS requirements for well completions (40 CFR part 60, subpart
OOOOa) and the GOR of 100,000 scf/bbl delineation between oil and gas
wells used in the U.S. Emissions Inventory for GHG Sources and Sinks.
The delineation between ``wet'' and ``dry'' gas wells was developed for
this ICR to gain information on ``wet'' gas wells because these gas
wells have been found to have higher VOC content and, as such, are of
particular interest in this information collection effort.
Option 2, which considers regional groupings of basins, defines the
following five populations based on basins (geological provinces)
defined by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists:
1. East: Basins 100 to 190
2. South: Basins 200 to 290 and Basin 400
3. Midwest: Basins 300 to 395
4. West Texas: Basins 405 to 440
5. West: Basins 445 to 895
Option 1 (populations based on well type) will ensure that a
statistically significant number of each well type is sampled. This is
important because there are fewer wet gas wells and coal bed methane
gas wells than heavy oil, light oil, or dry gas wells. However, because
of the differences in the number of wells within each population,
analyses using the data must use these classifications (or weighting
factors) to develop nationwide assessments. The regional populations
are more similar to each other in terms of the number of wells in each
region, but weighting factors would still be required to perform
nationwide assessments separate from these defined regions.
Based on a desire to have no more than a 10-percent error (i.e., +/
-10 percent) in the estimate of an average value at a 95-percent
confidence interval and 90-percent power to differentiate an effect
size of 0.2, the target number of samples required for large
populations was determined to be 385 (additional detail regarding the
determination of the target sample size using the statistical sampling
approach is provided in Part B of the Supporting Statement for this
ICR, which is included in Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0204 at http://www.regulations.gov). Consequently, because the number of production
facilities in each population is relatively large compared to the
target sample size, the overall costs of the two survey options for
production facilities are nearly identical. We are specifically
requesting comment on these two options for developing population
categories within the production industry. We recognize that other
alternatives may be viable, such as defining the entire production
industry as one population and developing sampling requirements based
on the accuracy and precision needed to characterize any subcategory of
the production population that represents, for example, 20 percent of
the total production wells. In this example, 1,925 (5 x 385) samples
from the production population would be required. All respondents would
have equal weight, so analyses could be conducted without having to
consider weighting factors, but analyses for categories of wells with
less than 20 percent of the population would have less accuracy and
precision. As there are many potential factors to consider for the
production population, we also request comment on other potential
methods to define populations of production wells in order to
adequately characterize the various potentially important differences
in production facilities.
Part 2 will collect detailed unit-specific information on emission
sources at the facility and any emission control devices or management
practices used to reduce emissions. Most of the information requested
under Part 2 is expected to be available from company records and would
not require additional measurements to be performed. However, selected
data elements must be completed based on actual component equipment
counts (specifically, pneumatic device counts and equipment leak
component counts) or measurement data (specifically, separator/storage
vessel flash analyses). If this information is not directly available
for a facility, the respondent will be required to collect and report
this information (count equipment components and/or sample and analyze
tank feed streams) as part of this information collection. Part 2 is
expected to include information that oil and gas facilities consider to
be confidential and the survey must be completed and submitted
electronically via the EPA's Electronic Greenhouse Gas Reporting Tool
(e-GGRT).
The data collected throughout this process will be used to
determine the number of potentially affected emission sources and the
types and prevalence of emission controls or emission reduction
measures used for these sources at existing oil and gas facilities,
among other purposes. This information may also be used to fill data
gaps, to evaluate the emission and cost impacts of various regulatory
options, and to establish appropriate standards of performance for oil
and gas facilities.
If OMB approves this ICR, respondents will be required to respond
under the authority of section 114 of the CAA. The EPA anticipates
issuing the CAA section 114 letters by October 30, 2016. These letters
would require the owner/operator of an oil and gas facility to complete
the Part 1 survey within 30 days of receipt of the survey, and would
require facilities to complete the Part 2 survey with 120 days of
receipt.
The Agency has reviewed the draft surveys applying the
confidentiality determination methods established for data reporting
under the GHGRP as a model, as well as the policy notice entitled
``Disclosure of Emission Data Claimed as Confidential Under Sections
110 and 114(c) of the Clean Air Act (56 FR 7042, February 21, 1991.)
The EPA has developed proposed determinations of the data elements in
the surveys that may be considered CBI. These proposed determinations
are included in the information being supplied for public review and
comment in Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0204 at http://www.regulations.gov. Confidentiality designations will be made
according to the provisions set forth in title 40, Code of Regulations
part 2, subpart B--Confidentiality of Business Information. Any
information subsequently determined to constitute a trade secret will
be protected under 18 U.S.C. 1905.
[[Page 35766]]
Form Numbers: Production Operator Survey (Part 1); Detailed
Facility Survey (Part 2).
Respondents/affected entities: Respondents affected by this action
are owners/operators of oil and natural gas facilities. Part 1 of this
ICR is specifically requesting information for facilities in the
onshore petroleum and natural gas production industry segment. Part 2
of this ICR is specifically requesting information for facilities in
the following industry segments: Onshore petroleum and natural gas
production, onshore petroleum and natural gas gathering and boosting,
onshore natural gas processing, onshore natural gas transmission
compression, onshore natural gas transmission pipelines, underground
natural gas storage, LNG storage and LNG import and export equipment.
The ICR is not requesting information for the offshore petroleum and
natural gas production industry segment or from the natural gas (local)
distribution industry segment.
Respondent's obligation to respond: The information collection in
Parts 1 and 2 is being conducted by the EPA's Office of Air and
Radiation pursuant to section 114 of the CAA, to assist the
Administrator of the EPA in developing emissions standards for oil and
natural gas facilities pursuant to the CAA.
Estimated number of respondents: The estimated number of
respondents for Part 1 is 22,500 operators representing approximately
698,800 facilities (total). The estimated number of respondents for
Part 2 is 3,385.
Frequency of response: This is a one-time survey.
Total estimated burden: The estimated industry burden is 116,438
hours for Part 1 and 111,485 hours for Part 2. Therefore, the
cumulative industry burden for all parts of this ICR is estimated to be
227,923 hours. The estimated cumulative Agency burden to administer
this ICR (all parts) is 17,947 hours. Burden is defined at 5 CFR
1320.03(b).
Total estimated cost: The estimated costs for the oil and natural
gas industry is $16,476,182 for Part 1 and $23,673,312 for Part 2. The
resulting total industry costs for all parts of this ICR is estimated
to be $40,149,494, which includes $11,302,500 in operating and
maintenance (O&M) costs to cover mailing hard copies of Part 1
responses and contracting services for storage vessel feed material
flashing analyses as part of Part 2 responses. The estimated cumulative
Agency costs to administer this ICR (all parts) is $960,793, which
includes $144,618 in O&M costs to send certified CAA section 114
letters to all respondents selected for Part 1 and Part 2 surveys with
electronic return receipt.
Changes in Estimates: This is a new ICR, so this section does not
apply.
Dated: May 12, 2016.
Peter Tsirigotis,
Director, Sector Policies and Programs Division, Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2016-11967 Filed 6-2-16; 8:45 am]
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