Welcome to the California Energy Almanac

Annual Reporting Results - California Retail Fuel Outlet Annual Report (A15)

The Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act (PIIRA) requires all retail service stations in California to file an A15 on an annual basis and report retail sales of gasoline, diesel and other transportation fuels. Sales data reported does not include commercial fleets, government entities, private cardlocks (facilities open only to participating companies and not the general public), or rental facilities/equipment yards.

For the 2011 calendar year, approximately 8,300 retail fueling stations in California reported, representing about 86 percent of the estimated 9,700 total stations in the state. Among this number includes different types of retail fueling stations, such as service stations, hypermarkets, truck stops, public card locks, and airports. Station population varies due to the opening of new stations, closures of existing stations and consolidations/changes of ownership.

The charts and graphs on this site are based on A15 sales as reported by stations. Statewide total estimates are calculated using a statistical method of resampling with replacement referred to as "bootstrapping."

Methodology

Total taxable sales volumes of gasoline in California are available from the California Board of Equalization (BoE). Staff uses this data as a benchmark for gasoline consumption after minor adjustments to account for rebates and audit adjustments. The A15 reported gasoline volumes totaled 1.95 billion gallons less than the BoE volumes because A15 reports are not received from all stations.

Using a statistical resampling methodology staff estimated the total gasoline station population needed to match the gasoline volumes reported by BoE. The method of resampling (or bootstrapping) refers to a computer-aided statistical method which uses a subset of data from a population to estimate statistics such as the mean, variance or percentiles pertaining to the population as a whole.

To implement this resampling method, staff first estimated the number of retail stations operating in California for a given year using the staff-adjusted gasoline sales data from BoE as a calibration target. The projected station counts were then used to extrapolate total retail diesel sales volumes statewide. State results were in turn used to estimate the gasoline and diesel sales at the county level, along with how many stations are estimated to be operating in each county. The results are reflected in the charts and tables on the subsequent web pages.

Overall station count totals have a margin of error of +/- 50 stations at the 95% confidence level. Projected retail fuel sales have a margin of error of +/- 10 million gallons (less than half a percent) at the 95% confidence level.

Diesel Sales

Significant portions of diesel fuel sales in California do not occur at the retail level. Overall consumption can be broken down into three mutually exclusive categories:

  • Taxable retail sales: These sales occur to individual end-users at retail stations, including truck stops. This is the only category of sales reflected by the A-15 survey, and totaled 1.45 billion gallons in 2011.
  • Taxable non-retail sales: This type of diesel is typically consumed by commercial fleets and totaled 1.01 billion gallons in 2011.
  • Non-taxable sales: Includes "dyed" diesel intended for construction vehicles, farm diesel and other off-road uses, totaling 0.8 billion gallons in 2011.

The chart below illustrates the breakdown of diesel sales in terms of retail and non-retail sales. Only taxable retail diesel sales are reflected in the A-15 survey.

Categorized Diesel Sales in California, 2011. Taxable Retail Sales = 44%, Taxable Non-Retail Sales = 31%, Non-Taxable Sales = 25%

 

Percentage of Stations Selling Diesel Fuel


Year 2008 2009 2010 2011
% 45% 47% 48% 49%

 

E-85 Report Responses

The sales volumes below represents report responses for alternative fuel sales from facilities dispensing E-85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) to the public at the retail level from 2009-2011. Data is only reported for retail stations and does not include non-retail sales of E-85 distributed by commercial fleets, government entities, private cardlocks (unattended dispensing facilities not open to the public), rental facilities/equipment yards, and special user groups. The conventional gasoline and ethanol components of the E-85 table have been updated with data from the Air Resources Board (ARB) that shows the average percentage of ethanol in E-85 is 82.8 percent. E-85 sales for 2008 are not reported to preserve confidentiality.

Reporting Year Gasoline Component (Gallons) Ethanol Component (Gallons) Total E-85 Throughput (Gallons) Stations Reported
2009237,3651,142,6641,380,02930
2010343,2801,652,5321,995,81236
2011668,9193,220,1453,889,06442

 

Fast Facts:

  • The estimated total number of retail stations in California decreased from 9,800 stations in 2010 to 9,710 in 2011.

Fast Facts - Gasoline:

  • Estimated total gasoline retail sales totaled 14.63 billion gallons in 2011.
  • The average of gasoline sales per station of survey respondents were 1.57 million gallons, or 131,000 gallons per month of throughput.
  • The top 1% of reporting retail gasoline stations in California sold approximately 8% of the total gasoline. The average of gasoline sales per station of the top 1% was 11.64 million gallons, or 970,000 gallons per month.
  • The top 20% of reporting retail gasoline stations in California sold half of the total gasoline. The average of gasoline sales per station of the top 20% was 3.73 million gallons, or 311,000 gallons per month.

Fast Facts - Diesel:

  • The percentage of reporting stations which sell diesel fuel gradually increased from 45% in 2008 to 49% in 2011.
  • The average of diesel sales per station of survey respondents were 0.34 million gallons, or 28,000 gallons per month of throughput.
  • Projected estimated total retail diesel sales were 1.45 billion gallons in 2011.
  • Approximately 44% of the estimated taxable diesel sales and nearly all the gasoline sales in California were at the retail level.
  • The top 1% of reporting retail diesel stations in California sold approximately 29% of the total retail diesel. The average of diesel sales per station of the top 1% was 9.98 million gallons, or 832,000 gallons per month.
  • The top 3.4% of reporting diesel stations sold half the retail diesel. The average of diesel sales per station of the top 3.4% was 4.98 million gallons, or 415,000 gallons per month.

Stations Reported and Projected Station Counts by County

Retail Gasoline Sales by County

Retail Diesel Sales by County