MMS Launches Online Ordering System

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announces the introduction of a new online ordering system that allows the customer to research well logs online and have them downloaded onto a customized CD-ROM at minimal cost. The new system offers customers savings in money, time, and energy because it makes available online all well logs that are available to the public.

"The online ordering system was created to take advantage of rapidly increasing advancements in automation technology and to keep up with customer demands," said MMS Director Johnnie Burton. "With this system, we can provide better and more efficient customer service."

Approximately 170,000 well logs with run dates of December 1995 and prior are available to the public. The logs are scanned in raster format (TIFF images) and include 1-inch and 5-inch induction, neutron density, formation density, and dipmeter logs.

On the MMS website at www.gomr.mms.gov, the new feature is designed to be flexible. Information can be retrieved quickly and easily from the index of releasable well logs. The user can search the online index for a specific well log by entering a specific area and any of the following criteria: API number, lease number, block number, well name, or log type. Once the requested logs are identified, they can be added to a shopping cart and ordered online. A fee of $15 per CD-ROM to cover the cost of supplies and mailing will be charged to the customer’s credit card. Once the credit card transaction is approved, the logs will be written to a CD, labeled, packaged, and shipped the next day. The system also allows the user to track and review past and pending orders, and to create custom labels for the CD’s.

"The new system spares MMS customers the inconvenience and expense of having to visit the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region’s Public Information Office in New Orleans to duplicate well logs on paper. As a matter of fact, after August 2002, paper copies of online well logs will no longer be available," explained Ms. Burton. "This is the latest in a series of improvements that MMS has implemented to provide better service to its many customers.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $10 billion in 2001 and more than $120 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.