industrial petroleum reserve

industrial petroleum reserve Sec. 156. (a) The Administrator may establish an Industrial Petroleum Reserve as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (b) To implement the Early Storage Reserve Plan or the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan which has taken effect pursuant to section 159(a), the Administrator 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 Administrator, except that the Administrator 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) The Administrator shall implement this section in a manner which is appropriate to the maintenance of an economically sound and competitive petroleum industry. The Administrator 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.