6560-50-P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2015-0216; FRL-9932-42-OAR]

RIN 2060-ZA22

Release of Draft Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and 

Natural Gas Industry

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing 

the availability of a draft Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG)

document for select oil and natural gas industry emission 

sources. This document, when finalized, will provide state,

local, and tribal air agencies (air agencies) information to

assist them in determining reasonably available control 

technology (RACT) for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions 

from such sources. 

DATES: Comments must be received on or before [insert date 60 

days after publication in the Federal Register]. 

ADDRESSES: The draft Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil 

and Natural Gas Industry is available primarily via the Internet 

at http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/index.html.

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR2015-0216, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal:
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http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for 

submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited 

or withdrawn. The EPA may publish any comment received to its 

public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you 

consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other 

information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied 

by a written comment. The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include discussion of all points you 

wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or 

comment contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e. 

on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional 

submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general 

guidance on making effective comments, please visit

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

Instructions. Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQOAR-2015-0216. The EPA's policy is that all comments received 

will be included in the public docket without change and may be 

made available online at http://www.regulations.gov, including 

any personal information provided, unless the comment includes 

information claimed to be Confidential Business Information 

(CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by 

statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI 
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or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or 

email. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an "anonymous 

access" system, which means the EPA will not know your identity 

or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your 

comment. If you send an email comment directly to the EPA 

without going through http://www.regulations.gov, your email 

address will be automatically captured and included as part of 

the comment that is placed in the public docket and made 

available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, 

the EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact 

information in the body of your comment and with any CD you 

submit. If the EPA cannot read your comment due to technical 

difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, the EPA 

may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files 

should avoid the use of special characters, avoid any form of 

encryption and be free of any defects or viruses. For additional 

information about the EPA's public docket, visit the EPA Docket 

Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm. For 

additional instructions on submitting comments, go to section 

I.A of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. 

Docket. All documents in the docket are listed in the 

http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, 

some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other 

information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain 
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other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly 

available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket materials 

are available either electronically at 

http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center, EPA WJC West 

Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC.

The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone 

number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the 

telephone number for the Air Docket is (202) 566-1742. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Charlene Spells, U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality Planning 

and Standards, Sector Policies and Programs Division (E143-05), 

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number:(919) 541-

5255; fax number:(919) 541-3470; email:spells.charlene@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information

A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments? 

Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to the EPA 

through http://www.regulations.gov or email. Clearly mark the 

part or all of the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI 

information in a CD that you mail to the EPA, mark the outside 

of the CD as CBI and then identify electronically within the CD 

the specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to 
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one complete version of the comment that includes information 

claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the 

information claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in 

the public docket. Information so marked will not be disclosed 

except in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2. 

Send or deliver information identified as CBI only to the 

following address: Tiffany Purifoy, OAQPS Document Control 

Officer (C404-02), U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, 

Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2015-0216. 

II. Information About the Document

Section 172(c)(1) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) provides that 

State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for nonattainment areas must 

include “reasonably available control measures”, including 

“reasonably available control technology” (RACT), for existing 

sources of emissions. Section 182(b)(2)(A)of the CAA requires

that for Moderate ozone nonattainment areas, states must revise 

their SIPs to include RACT for each category of VOC sources 

covered by a CTG document issued between November 15, 1990, and 

the date of attainment. CAA section 182(c) through (e) applies 

this requirement to States with ozone nonattainment areas 

classified as Serious, Severe and Extreme. 

The CAA also imposes the same requirement on States in 

ozone transport regions (OTR). Specifically, CAA Section 184(b) 
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provides that states in the Ozone Transport Region (OTR) must 

revise their SIPs to implement RACT with respect to all sources 

of VOCs in the state covered by a CTG issued before or after 

November 15, 1990. CAA section 184(a) establishes a single OTR

comprised of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, 

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, 

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and the Consolidated 

Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) that includes the District 

of Columbia.

The EPA defines RACT as “the lowest emission limitation 

that a particular source is capable of meeting by the 

application of control technology that is reasonably available 

considering technological and economic feasibility” (44 FR 

53761, September 17, 1979). The EPA is developing this CTG to 

provide air agencies information to assist them in determining 

RACT for VOC from select oil and natural gas emission sources. 

In developing the CTG, the EPA, among other things, evaluated 

the sources of VOC emissions from the oil and natural gas 

industry and the available control approaches for addressing 

these emissions, including the costs of such approaches. Based 

on available information and data, the EPA is providing draft

recommendations for RACT for select oil and natural gas industry 

emission sources. The VOC RACT recommendations contained in this 

draft CTG were made based on a review of the 1983 CTG, the oil 
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and natural gas NSPS, existing state and local VOC emission 

reduction approaches, and information on costs, emissions and 

available emission control technologies obtained since issuance 

of these guidelines and rules. For instance, the EPA released 

for external peer review five technical white papers on 

potentially significant sources of emissions in the oil and gas 

sector. We considered information included in the white papers, 

along with the input we received from the peer reviewers and the 

public, when evaluating and recommending a RACT level of control 

for emission sources. Upon finalization of the CTG, air agencies

can use the recommendations in the CTG to inform their 

determinations as to what constitutes RACT for VOC for these oil

and natural gas industry emission sources in their particular 

areas. The information contained in the CTG is provided only as 

guidance. This guidance does not change, or substitute for, 

requirements specified in applicable sections of the CAA or the 

EPA’s regulations; nor is it a regulation itself. The CTG does 

not impose any legally binding requirements on any entity. It 

provides only recommendations for air agencies to consider in 

determining RACT. Air agencies are free to implement other 

technically-sound approaches that are consistent with the CAA 

and the EPA’s regulations.

The recommendations contained in the CTG are based on data 

and information currently available to the EPA. These general 
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recommendations may not apply in all situations. Regardless of 

whether a state chooses to implement the recommendations 

contained in a CTG through state rules, or to issue state rules 

that adopt different approaches for RACT for VOC from oil and 

natural gas industry emission sources, states must submit their 

RACT rules to the EPA for review and approval as part of the SIP 

process. The EPA will evaluate the rules and determine, through 

notice and comment rulemaking in the SIP review process, whether 

the submitted rules meet the RACT requirements of the CAA and 

the EPA’s regulations. To the extent a state adopts any of the 

recommendations in this CTG, upon its finalization, into its 

state RACT rules, interested parties can raise questions and 

objections about the substance of this guidance and the 

appropriateness of the application of this guidance to a 

particular situation during the development of the state rules 

and the EPA’s SIP review process.

Section 182(b)(2) of the CAA requires that a CTG issued 

between November 15, 1990, and the date of attainment provide 

the period for submitting SIP revisions in response to such CTG. 

In the draft CTG, the EPA is providing a two-year period, from 

the date of final issuance, for the required submittal. 

The Tribal Authority Rule (63 FR 7254, February 12, 1998) 

(TAR) identifies CAA provisions for which it is appropriate to 

treat Indian tribes in the same manner as states (TAS). Pursuant 
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to the TAR, tribes may apply for TAS for purposes of CAA section 

110 and Part D planning requirements in CAA section 172. As a 

result, tribes may, but are not required to, apply for TAS for 

the purpose a developing a tribal implementation plan (TIP) 

addressing RACT for sources located in a Moderate (or higher) 

nonattainment area for ozone within the tribe’s jurisdiction. If 

the EPA grants that status and approves the TIP, the tribe would 

implement RACT in Moderate (or higher) ozone nonattainment areas 

within the geographic scope of the TAS designation. If a tribe 

does not seek and obtain the authority from the EPA to establish 

a plan, the EPA will be responsible for establishing CAA section 

110 and 172 plans for reservations and trust lands if the EPA 

determines that such a plan is necessary or appropriate to 

protect air quality in such areas. 

III. Specific Comments Solicited

In addition to providing an opportunity to review and 

comment on the draft CTG, the EPA is also soliciting specific 

comment on the following:

1. Information on costs associated with retrofitting an 

existing storage vessel to allow routing of emissions to a 

control device.

2. Information on the implementation of a monitoring plan that 

includes the use of optical gas imaging for fugitive 

emissions at existing well sites.
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3. Interaction of the CTG with new builds in areas affected by 

the CTG. Refer to materials in the docket (EPA-HQ-OAR-2015-

0216).
4. The appropriateness of a daily average of 15 barrel 

equivalents as a representative threshold to define low 

production wells for purposes of requiring a fugitive 

emissions program and information on fugitive air emissions 

associated with low production wells.

Dated: ________________________.

_________________________ 

Gina McCarthy, 

Administrator.