June 1999 — The USEA CEPI Environmental Overview seminar was held in Tbilisi, Georgia on June 10th and 11th. MMS, as a partner, was represented by two employees expert in the overall MMS program and the environmental issues and analyses associated with offshore oil and gas activities. Approximately six Georgian participants attended, including government, industry and NGO representatives. The seminar consisted of presentations by the U.S. representatives, focusing on the evolution of regulatory practices in the U.S., the common regulatory objectives onshore and offshore, and methods to achieve these regulatory objectives. Several issues of concern to the Georgians were identified. The USEA is now working with the partnership resource pool to develop partnership activities that will provide opportunities to address some of these concerns.
 

November 1999 — MMS presented an Overview of an Oil and Gas Regulatory Body: the MMS Model in Tbilisi, Georgia on November 16 - 18. Six representatives from MMS participated. This workshop was similar to the first technical assistance workshop in Turkmenistan, but was revised to incorporate the physical and geologic differences of Georgia. We worked closely with Hagler-Bailly in the regulatory reform efforts and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The Georgian attendees at the workshop comprised the recently established State Agency for the Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources. In coordination with USAID Caucasus Mission and Hagler-Bailly, plans were made to return in six months to follow-up and to offer assistance to the nascent Agency.
 

June 2000 — One MMS official attended and presented at the Department of Energy’s Workshop on Legal and Legislative Issues Associated with Implementing National and Regional Oil Spill Response Systems in Tbilisi, Georgia. The workshop was attended by numerous senior officials from both the Georgian government as well as private and national oil and gas companies active in the region. The MMS gave a presentation detailing the roles and responsibilities of MMS as well as other agencies within the U.S. during a spill emergency, and the way in which theoretical plans can be created and revised to meet the needs of an actual disaster.
 

June 2000 — The MMS Pacific Regional Office in Camarillo, California hosted a seven-member delegation of inspectors and policymakers from the Georgian State Agency for the Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources (SAROGR). This activity was carried out under the auspices of USEA’s Caspian Environmental Partnership Initiative with MMS as a federal regulatory partner. The three-day activity presented a primer of MMS’s inspection program as it relates to both drilling and production on the U.S. Outer-Continental Shelf (OCS). As part of the activity, the delegation was taken offshore to shadow an MMS inspector on typical inspections of two offshore platforms.
 

April 2001 — At the request of the U.S. Department of State and the Meridian International Center, MMS presented a brief overview of the financial (i.e. economics, budget planning and execution, and minerals revenue management) aspects of regulating oil and gas to a senior delegation from the Republic of Georgia. The eight member delegation was composed of regulators from the State Agency for the Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources (SAROGR), researchers, journalists, and parliamentarians.