Background The Department of Energy (Department) established the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) in 2014, following Superstorm Sandy in 2012, under the auspices of Section 151 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) (42 U.S.C 6245), which authorizes the broader Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and Section 171 of EPCA (42 U.S.C. 6249), which authorizes the Secretary of Energy to contract for the storage of petroleum product owned by the United States in storage facilities other than those of the SPR. The Department executed storage service contracts to support the establishment of the NGSR as a regional refined petroleum product reserve in the Northeast (i.e., the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey). The NGSR currently comprises 1 million barrels of gasoline blendstock. The current NGSR storage contracts expire on June 30, 2022. The Department provides operational oversight of the NGSR, to include contract management, independent product quality and quantity assurance certifications, annual audits, establishment of sales procedures and a sales platform, and coordination with each of the NGSR storage contractors to ensure availability and accessibility of the NGSR. The NGSR storage contractors are responsible for maintaining both the quantity and quality of the refined product, to include any seasonal changeover of NGSR gasoline blendstock that is required to comply with requirements under the Clean Air Act. Additionally, the NGSR storage contractors are obligated to ensure that their specific facility is available in the event that a release from the NGSR is required, to include meeting the Department’s release requirements in the aftermath of an event that disrupts commercial electric power. The NGSR storage contractors are required to provide detailed information on inventories, activities, and distribution capabilities at the request of the Department if conditions exist for a potential release. Request for Information With the existing NGSR storage contracts expiring at the end of June 2022, the Department is requesting general information regarding the commercial facility capabilities to meet the needs of the NGSR in its respective region. This stockpile of 1 million barrels of gasoline blendstock in the Northeast for use in a Presidentially-declared emergency consistent with section 161 of EPCA (42 U.S.C. 6241), is currently commingled in commercial storage, with the Department entering into agreements for the storage and maintenance of gasoline blendstock in the Northeast region. Specifically, the Department is interested in the following questions: What methods of delivery (barge, pipeline, truck, etc) does your facility offer to distribute gasoline locally? Regionally? What is the maximum and minimum rate that gasoline (RBOB or CBOB) can be distributed from your facilities during normal operations? During an emergent event (i.e., hurricane, storm, etc)? In the event of commercial power loss, what other options does your facility have to access and distribute existing fuel storage? Does your facility have a quality control program that meets all specifications of state and federal EPA guidelines? The Department is interested in any other ideas that allow the Government to improve the capabilities of the product reserve system that continues to meet all the legal requirements contained in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6201 et seq. ) while lowering the total cost of storing 1 million gallons of gasoline blendstock in the Northeast. Please provide your ideas and answers to the questions above to Patrick Koehler, Contracting Officer Representative for the NGSR for the Office of Petroleum Reserves, at
[email protected] no later than 14 calendar days from the release of this RFI.