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The oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil production from the Gulf of Mexico is extremely important to the U.S. economy.  Financial companies want to know this information. The stock market really needs to know.  The price of oil is dependent on the supply of oil and gas. So when oil is shut in the in the Gulf of Mexico, it really does impact the oil and gas supply chain in the U.S.  As a result, the public and the financial institutions and the oil and gas industry, as a whole, needs to know what impacts hurricanes have on the infrastructure and on the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, MMS has made an effort to collect this information. We collect it by requiring companies to submit daily reports to MMS which outline the affects of the hurricane-- the damage to the infrastructure, damage to pipelines, damage to structures; as well as the production that was shut-in as a result of the hurricane.

E-Well is a web-based system that is tied directly to the MMS database. So it allows companies to call up their information and to submit their damage reports and curtailment reports to us for each facility.  It allows us to keep track of what facilities have reported. And we are also able to tell which facilities haven’t been reported. We’re then able to summarize this information automatically through the E-Well system and provide that information to the public. The other advantage of E-Well is that it is a truly a permitting system for the well permits. So that, if we have to evacuate, we can still process well permits. Companies can still submit their permits and reports to us.  We are able to access those reports and provide industry the means to go ahead and conduct their activities even though our offices may have been damaged or we’ve had to evacuate.

MMS collects its production curtailment and damage information from the offshore oil and gas operators.  When a hurricane enters the gulf, we require companies to submit daily reports which outline what platforms were evacuated, what structures were evacuated and any damage that took place to those structures as a result of the hurricane.  Historically, companies would have to fax that information to us, or e-mail that information to us.  But this past year we’ve modified our E-well reporting system, which is a web-based system to allow companies to submit that information to us in a paperless type way.

The oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is very important to the U.S. economy. So that when a hurricane hits, the public wants to know almost immediately what affects that hurricane had on the oil and gas activity. They want to know how much production was shut in.  They’d like to know what damage took place to the infrastructure. They’d also like to know how many facilities are still evacuated and whether the manpower has gone back into the Gulf or not.

As a result of the impacts from the 2005 hurricane season, MMS had decided to enhance our E-Well system to submit their production curtailment reports and damage reports to us through the web-based E-Well system. It provides a more efficient way for companies to submit their information as well as providing MMS an automated way to summarize all the information and it allows us to get that information out a lot quicker. 

If there is a power failure in a regional office that shuts down the server, we are able to switch our server location to our Denver office.  If there are power failures at the other sites, any company with access to the internet can go to that new location and access the E-Well system and submit their report. So companies do not necessarily have to send the information from one location.  Any location with access to the internet would be a means to submit the information to us. And on the MMS side, we can access the system regardless of where we are physically located as long as we have access to the internet.  So it really does make a more efficient system and provides the data to us a lot easier.  We are not tied to one phone number or one location.

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Last Updated: 08/17/2007, 08:57 AM Central Time