Letter for Petroleum Testing EIA-782C 815

Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 August 5, 2011

Chad Whiteman

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(54), (approved under OMB number1905-0186) for semi-structured telephone interviews for Forms EIA-782C, “Monthly Report of Prime Supplier Sales of Petroleum Products Sold for Local Consumption” and EIA-815, “Monthly Bulk Terminal and Blenders Report").

Dear Mr. Whiteman:

Form EIA-782C is used to collect data on the sales of selected petroleum products by prime suppliers delivered into States for local consumption. Respondents are refiners, gas plant operators, importers, and large inter-State resellers and retailers. The data are used by the Department of Energy to analyze and report on petroleum product demand. In addition, the data are used by State and Federal agencies, Congress, industry analysts, trade publications, academia, and the public to analyze, model and forecast petroleum product consumption by State.

Form EIA-815 collects data on the balance between the supply and the disposition of refined products that are collected from bulk terminals and blenders. It also collects information on storage capacity for several major product groupings. Respondents are operators of all operating and idle bulk terminals and blenders located in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and other U.S. possessions.

Background In preparation for the 2013 Petroleum Marketing and Petroleum Supply OMB clearance packages, EIA survey methodologists conducted internal semi-structured interviews to re-assess potential measurement error on the petroleum forms. EIA survey methodologists identified constructs in both the EIA-782C and EIA-815 that need clarification with respondents. Specifically, these constructs are:

• Fungibility

• Blends

• Reformulated and Conventional Gasoline

• EIA-782C Exclusionary list

• Product Codes

• Stocks in Transit

• Storage Capacity

Proposed pre-survey design visits: EIA plans to conduct up to 25 semi-structured telephone interviews with Form EIA-782C and EIA-815 respondents. We plan to conduct the interviews in late August or in September of 2011.

EIA may use the information collected from these semi-structured telephone interviews to revise Forms EIA-782C and EIA-815. Specifically, the information collected may be used to update the instructions in order to retrieve more accurate and uniform reporting of the data from respondents.

Burden: Each semi-structured telephone interview will be about one hour. Total overall burden will be 25 hours.

EIA will provide OMB with the results of these tests in the annual summary of generic clearances. Two documents are included with this information collection request. They are the draft protocols for the EIA-782C and EIA-815 which will be used during the semi-structured telephone interviews.

For questions on the semi-structured telephone interviews, contact Richard Reeves (202) 586-5856.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Brown

Director

Office of Survey Development

and Statistical Integration

U.S. Energy Information Administration

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