74068 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 228 / Friday, November 27, 2015 / Proposed Rules 

is not placed on the Internet and will be 

publicly available only in hard copy 

form. Publicly available docket 

materials are available in 

www.regulations.gov or may be viewed 

during normal business hours at the Air 

Protection Division, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 

Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

19103. Copies of the State submittal are 

available at the Virginia Department of 

Environmental Quality, 629 East Main 

Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Irene Shandruk, (215) 814–2166, or by 

email at shandruk.irene@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For 

further information, please see the 

information provided in the direct final 

action, with the same title, that is 

located in the ‘‘Rules and Regulations’’ 

section of this Federal Register 

publication. 

Dated: November 12, 2015. 

Shawn M. Garvin, 

Regional Administrator, Region III. 

[FR Doc. 2015–30105 Filed 11–25–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 63 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2015–0747; FRL–9937–04– 

OAR] 

RIN 2060–AS13 

Oil and Natural Gas Sector: National 

Emission Standards for Hazardous Air 

Pollutants 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Request for information. 

SUMMARY: This action requests 

information related to hazardous air 

pollutant (HAP) emissions from sources 

in the oil and natural gas production 

and natural gas transmission and storage 

segments of the oil and natural gas 

sector. In 2012, the Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) revised the 

National Emission Standards for 

Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for 

the Oil and Natural Gas Production 

Facilities and the Natural Gas 

Transmission and Storage Facilities 

major source categories. This action 

requests additional data and 

information that was not available at 

that time. In particular, we are 

requesting data on storage vessels 

without potential flash emissions (PFE) 

and data on HAP emissions from 

regulated small glycol dehydrators. 

With regard to the small glycol 

dehydrators we are particularly 

interested in data regarding any 

emissions of HAP other than benzene, 

toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene 

(BTEX), information on available 

control options for any such HAP and 

information regarding a potential 

compliance demonstration issue with 

respect to the 2012 standards for small 

glycol dehydration units, as they apply 

to units with very low emissions. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before January 26, 2016. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OAR–2015–0747, to the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal: 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. 

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 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: For 

further information about this action, 

contact Mr. Matthew Witosky, Sector 

Policies and Programs Division (E143– 

05), Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards, Environmental Protection 

Agency, Research Triangle Park, North 

Carolina 27711, telephone number: 

(919) 541–2865; facsimile number: (919) 

541–3740; email address: 

witosky.matthew@epa.gov. For further 

information on the EPA’s oil and natural 

gas sector regulatory program, contact 

Mr. Bruce Moore, Sector Policies and 

Programs Division (E143–05), Office of 

Air Quality Planning and Standards, 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 

27711, telephone number: (919) 541– 

5460; facsimile number: (919) 541–3470; 

email address: moore.bruce@epa.gov. 

For additional contact information, see 

the following SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. Does this action apply to me? 

Categories and entities potentially 

affected by this action include: 

TABLE 1—INDUSTRIAL SOURCE CATEGORIES AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION

Category NAICS code 1 Examples of regulated entities 

Industry ..................................................... 211111 Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Extraction. 

211112 Natural Gas Liquid Extraction. 

221210 Natural Gas Distribution. 

486110 Pipeline Distribution of Crude Oil. 

486210 Pipeline Transportation of Natural Gas. 

Federal government .................................. ........................ Not affected. 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS

Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 228 / Friday, November 27, 2015 / Proposed Rules 74069 

1 40 CFR part 63, subpart HH also includes 

standards for certain area source glycol dehydration 

units, which were not a subject of the 2012 

NESHAP revisions. 

TABLE 1—INDUSTRIAL SOURCE CATEGORIES AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION—Continued 

Category NAICS code 1 Examples of regulated entities 

State/local/tribal government .................... ........................ Not affected. 

1 North American Industry Classification System. 

This table is not intended to be 

exhaustive, but rather is meant to 

provide a guide for readers regarding 

entities likely to be affected by this 

action. If you have any questions 

regarding the applicability of this action 

to a particular entity, consult either the 

air permitting authority for the entity or 

your EPA Regional representative as 

listed in 40 CFR 60.4 or 40 CFR 63.13 

(General Provisions). 

B. What should I consider as I prepare 

my information/comments to the EPA? 

Do not submit information containing 

CBI to the EPA through 

www.regulations.gov or email. Send or 

deliver information identified as CBI 

only to the following address: OAQPS 

Document Control Officer (C404–02), 

Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, Research Triangle 

Park, North Carolina 27711, Attention: 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2015– 

0747. Clearly mark the part or all of the 

information that you claim to be CBI. 

For CBI in a disk or CD-ROM that you 

mail to the EPA, mark the outside of the 

disk or CD-ROM as CBI and then 

identify electronically within the disk or 

CD-ROM the specific information that is 

claimed as CBI. In addition to 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. 

II. Background 

In 2012, the EPA issued a final rule 

titled ‘‘Oil and Natural Gas Sector: New 

Source Performance Standards and 

National Emission Standards for 

Hazardous Air Pollutants Reviews,’’ 77 

FR 49490 (August 16, 2012). The final 

rule contains final actions on two 

different national standards for the oil 

and natural gas industry promulgated by 

the EPA under the Clean Air Act (CAA): 

(1) The new source performance 

standards (NSPS), promulgated under 

section 111 of the CAA, and (2) the 

NESHAP, promulgated under section 

112 of the CAA. The NESHAP portion 

of the final rule (‘‘the 2012 NESHAP 

revisions’’) included the EPA’s residual 

risk and technology review of the 

NESHAP for the Oil and Natural Gas 

Production Facilities and the NESHAP 

for the Natural Gas Transmission and 

Storage Facilities major source 

categories (40 CFR part 63 subpart HH 1

and HHH, respectively) pursuant to 

sections 112(f)(2) and (d)(6) of the CAA. 

In addition, pursuant to section 

112(d)(2) and (3) of the CAA, the EPA 

established emission standards for 

BTEX based on maximum achievable 

control technology (MACT) for a 

subcategory of glycol dehydrators 

referred to as the ‘‘small glycol 

dehydration units.’’ 

This request is to obtain additional 

data and information. We are interested 

in receiving information on HAP 

emissions from some affected facilities 

in the oil and natural gas production, 

and the natural gas transmission and 

storage segments of the oil and natural 

gas sector. In particular, the EPA is 

interested in the following information: 

1. HAP emissions from storage vessels 

without PFE from the oil and natural gas 

production segment; 

2. Emission information on HAP other 

than BTEX from small glycol 

dehydrators and available control 

options. 

In addition, the EPA recently learned 

of a potential compliance demonstration 

issue with respect to the 2012 BTEX 

MACT standards for small glycol 

dehydration units as they apply to units 

with very low BTEX emissions. The 

EPA is also soliciting comment and 

information related to this issue. The 

Agency also requests any additional 

relevant information for sources covered 

by the NESHAP. 

Section III of this action discusses in 

more detail the information identified 

above. The EPA is providing a 60-day 

period for the public to submit the 

requested information. 

III. Solicitation of Data and Comments 

The following presents the issues on 

which we are particularly interested in 

receiving feedback, data, and 

information. 

A. Storage Vessels Without Potential 

Flash Emissions 

We request available data on storage 

vessels without PFE. Crude oil, 

condensate, and produced water are 

typically stored in fixed-roof storage 

vessels. Some vessels used for storing 

produced water may be open-top tanks. 

These fixed-roof vessels, which are 

operated at or near atmospheric 

pressure conditions, are typically 

located in tank batteries at well sites 

and at centralized gathering facilities. A 

tank battery refers to the collection of 

process components used to separate, 

treat, and store crude oil, condensate, 

intermediate hydrocarbon liquids, and 

produced water. The extracted products 

from production wells enter the tank 

battery through the production header, 

which may collect product from many 

wells. 

Emissions from storage vessels are a 

result of working, breathing, and flash 

losses. Working losses occur due to the 

emptying and filling of storage vessels. 

Breathing losses are the release of gas 

associated with daily temperature 

fluctuations and other equilibrium 

effects. Flash losses occur when a liquid 

with entrained gases is transferred from 

a vessel with higher pressure to a vessel 

with lower pressure, and thus, allowing 

entrained gases or a portion of the liquid 

to vaporize or flash. In the oil and 

natural gas production segment, flashing 

losses occur when crude oil or 

condensate flows into a storage vessel 

from a processing vessel operated at a 

higher pressure. Typically, the larger the 

pressure drop, the more flash emissions 

will occur in the storage vessel. 

Temperature of the liquid may also 

influence the amount of flash emissions. 

In 1999, the EPA promulgated the 

NESHAP for the Oil and Natural Gas 

Production Facilities major source 

category (40 CFR part 63, subpart HH). 

The 1999 NESHAP included the MACT 

standards for storage vessels with PFE, 

which are defined in subpart HH, 40 

CFR 63.761. 

The 1999 NESHAP left unregulated 

storage vessels without PFE (i.e., storage 

vessels that do not meet the above 

definition). In the 2011 proposal to 

revise the Oil and Natural Gas 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS

74070 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 228 / Friday, November 27, 2015 / Proposed Rules 

2Proposed Rule, Oil and Natural Gas Sector: New 

Source Performance Standards and National 

Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants 

Reviews, 76 FR 52738 (August 23, 2011). 

3The EPA is not requesting information that 

would identify the units. Rather, we are requesting 

information demonstrating that for an affected 

facility, the applicable standard would be below the 

detection limit of the EPA method used to show 

compliance. 

NESHAP,2 the EPA proposed MACT 

standards for storage vessels without 

PFE pursuant to CAA section 112(d)(2) 

and (3), but did not take final action on 

that proposal. As explained in the 

preamble to the 2012 NESHAP 

revisions, ‘‘we need (and intend to 

gather) additional data on these sources 

in order to analyze and establish MACT 

emission standards for this subcategory 

of storage vessels under section 

112(d)(2) and (3) of the CAA.’’ 77 FR 

49503. 

We request available data regarding 

storage vessels without PFE. In 

particular, we are interested in data and 

other relevant information 

characterizing emissions and emission 

rates of storage vessels in the oil and 

natural gas production segment that do 

not have PFE, but that nonetheless emit 

HAP. We also request information on 

technologies and/or practices for 

reducing emissions from storage vessels 

without PFE. 

B. Studies of HAP Emissions From 

Small Glycol Dehydrators 

The EPA is specifically interested in 

receiving data for units with low inlet 

concentration of BTEX and the amount 

of these HAP emissions from small 

glycol dehydration units. In 2012, 

pursuant to CAA section 112(d)(2) and 

(3), the EPA revised 40 CFR part 63, 

subparts HH and HHH to include MACT 

standards for ‘‘small glycol dehydration 

units.’’ See 40 CFR 63.761 and 63.1271. 

The standards for both existing and new 

sources of small glycol dehydration 

units are in the form of a unit-specific 

BTEX emission limit determined by the 

equations provided in that subpart. 

The EPA recently learned of a 

potential compliance demonstration 

issue for certain small glycol 

dehydration units with very low BTEX 

emissions. Specifically, we were 

informed that for certain small glycol 

dehydrators that operate with low BTEX 

inlet concentrations, the equations may 

result in emission standards that are 

below the detection limit for the 

reference method used for compliance 

purposes. If there are units that fit this 

criterion, it is theoretically possible that 

neither the source nor the EPA could 

verify compliance using the methods 

specified in the rule. To enable us to 

fully evaluate this issue, we are 

requesting source data that 

demonstrates whether compliance with 

the standard can be verified at small 

glycol dehydration units for which this 

is a potential issue. We request that 

commenters submit estimates on the 

number of units where this is a potential 

problem and the data showing the HAP 

inlet concentrations for these units.3

We are also requesting information on 

emissions of HAP other than BTEX from 

small glycol dehydrators. As explained 

above, in the 2012 NESHAP revisions, 

the EPA established MACT standards 

for BTEX emitted from small glycol 

dehydration units. While our data 

indicate that there is potential for other 

HAP to be emitted from small glycol 

dehydration units, we do not have 

sufficient information to establish 

MACT standards for other HAP emitted 

from these units. We are, therefore, 

requesting data that show the types and 

quantities of HAP emissions other than 

BTEX from small glycol dehydration 

units. In addition to non-BTEX HAP 

emissions data, we are requesting 

information on methods employed to 

control these non-BTEX HAP, including 

whether BTEX control measures are an 

effective method for other non-BTEX 

HAP emitted by the units. 

Dated: November 3, 2015. 

Janet G. McCabe, 

Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air 

and Radiation. 

[FR Doc. 2015–30103 Filed 11–25–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS