Notice to Lessees and Operators (NTL) of Federal Oil, Gas,
and Sulphur Leases in the Outer Continental Shelf

Year 2000 (Y2K) Readiness Disclosure Statement

NOTE: NTL 98-19N is also available for download in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).

We are all acutely aware that the year 2000 is accompanied by an enormous potential for systems to malfunction or stop working entirely. These effects could be devastating to individuals and programs. In preparing for Y2K, the MMS is actively participating in various Federal groups, interacting with industry, and visiting various Y2K Web sites to gather vendors compliance activities. All of these activities have made us even more aware of the complexity in preparing systems to meet the Y2K challenge, as well as the amount of planning and work everyone is doing to expeditiously resolve or minimize the potential ill effects when the year 2000 arrives.

As the Government’s regulator for OCS activities, our responsibility includes bringing concerns we have identified to the attention of our partners/stakeholders. With increasing frequency, one concern continues to surface throughout all Private and Government sectors with respect to the embedded microchip technology. This problem could possibly impact the successful performance of devices and systems. We want to reinforce the need for you to pay significant attention to embedded microchip technology as part of a Y2K impact analysis. If you have not already, we urge you to address it in your preparations for Y2K to ensure safe activities on the OCS.

For your information, the general Web site for the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion is at www.y2k.gov. At this site you will find useful information on Y2K preparations by various sectors of the Nation’s economy and infrastructure. The site is grouped with over 20 economic sectors, and within the Energy Sector is an Oil and Gas Work Group, which has a representative from the MMS. The various activities of the Oil and Gas work Group activities can be found at www.ferc.fed.us/y2k/index.html.

If we can be of assistance on this or other Y2K issues, please contact Mr. Sam McCormick at (504) 731-3036 or via e-mail at y2k0mm.

This NTL is also on the MMS worldwide website at http://www.mms.gov.

Carolita U. Kallaur [signed]
Associate Director, Offshore Energy and Minerals Management
Dated: 1/6/99