§6236. Industrial Petroleum Reserve

(a) Establishment

The Secretary may establish an Industrial Petroleum Reserve as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

(b) Amounts of petroleum products required to be stored by importers and refiners; exemption of products from tariff or import license fee

To implement the Early Storage Reserve Plan or the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan which has taken effect pursuant to section 6239(a) of this title, the Secretary may require each importer of petroleum products and each refiner to (1) acquire, and (2) store and maintain in readily available inventories, petroleum products in amounts determined by the Secretary, except that the Secretary may not require any such importer or refiner to store such petroleum products in an amount greater than 3 percent of the amount imported or refined by such person, as the case may be, during the previous calendar year. Petroleum products imported and stored in the Industrial Petroleum Reserve shall be exempt from any tariff or import license fee.

(c) Implementation of section by Secretary

The Secretary shall implement this section in a manner which is appropriate to the maintenance of an economically sound and competitive petroleum industry. The Secretary shall take such steps as are necessary to avoid inequitable economic impacts on refiners and importers, and he may grant relief to any refiner or importer who would otherwise incur special hardship, inequity, or unfair distribution of burdens as the result of any rule, regulation, or order promulgated under this section. Such relief may include full or partial exemption from any such rule, regulation, or order and the issuance of an order permitting such an importer or refiner to store petroleum products owned by such importer or refiner in surplus storage capacity owned by the United States.

( Pub. L. 94–163, title I, §156, Dec. 22, 1975, 89 Stat. 885 ; Pub. L. 95–619, title VI, §691(b)(2), Nov. 9, 1978, 92 Stat. 3288 .)

Amendments

1978-Pub. L. 95–619 substituted "Secretary" for "Administrator", meaning Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration, wherever appearing.

Section Referred to in Other Sections

This section is referred to in sections 6232, 6235, 6239, 6240, 6241 of this title.