Who is the oxygenate blender in a situation where a petroleum marketer who holds title to the gasoline engages a common carrier tank truck company to transport the gasoline, and, upon the completion of loading the truck, but before leaving the marketer's
In both scenarios, since the marketer owns the gasoline and the carrier owns the oxygenate blending facility (i.e., the truck in which blending takes place) and executes the blending operation, both parties fit the definition of an oxygenate blender, as found in § 80.2 of the regulations. Both parties, therefore, are independently responsible for the completion of all oxy blending requirements, such as meeting standards, sampling and testing, recordkeeping and reporting.
However, these oxy blending requirements must be met only once for any oxy blending operation. As a result, if the requirements are properly accomplished by one oxy blender for a particular blending operation, EPA will consider the requirement to have been accomplished by each person who meets the definition of oxy blender for that operation. Normally, the party that holds title to the fuel would be responsible for reporting the batch to EPA. (7/1/94)
This question and answer was posted at Consolidated List of Reformulated Gasoline and Anti-Dumping Questions and Answers: July 1, 1994 through November 10, 1997 (PDF)(333 pp, 18.17 MB, EPA420-R-03-009, July 2003, About PDF)