ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON DC 20585
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 7, 2005
NOTE TO EDITORS:
New Program to Improve Access to Weekly Petroleum Data; Final Tests Scheduled Next Week
On Wednesday, January 26, 2005, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will implement a new program, called Gatekeeper, designed to improve Internet access to weekly petroleum data.
The recent high level of interest in the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) has resulted in a substantial increase in activity on the EIA web site when the report is released at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. This activity has sometimes made it difficult for customers to access WPSR data at release time, principally because repeated attempts by web site users to access the new data in the minutes just prior to release use an excessive amount of bandwidth.
Gatekeeper will be turned on for the several minutes just prior to the official release time and will deny customer access to the data area. During these minutes, EIA’s petroleum office will replace the prior week’s WPSR with the new WPSR, and customers who try to access the new edition will be presented with an error message indicating the time remaining until the release of new data. At the moment of official release, browsers will automatically refresh to display the new data.
EIA has previously notified data users regarding planned tests of the Gatekeeper system through notices distributed via the EIA Petroleum Data News email list. Successful customer tests of Gatekeeper were conducted on November 23 and December 9. We are conducting a final set of customer tests from January 11 through January 13, and we have scheduled 6 different test times to encourage the widest possible participation. Notification of these tests is being provided by this press release, by an announcement on the WPSR web page, and by another email list notice. Users who access WPSR using “robots” are particularly encouraged to participate, so that they can make any necessary adjustments to their software before Gatekeeper goes live on January 26. Test instructions are on the EIA web site at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/press/gatekeeper.html
Questions about Gatekeeper should be addressed to the EIA
This Note to Editors was prepared by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. The information contained in the Note should be attributed to the Energy Information Administration and should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any policy position of the Department of Energy or any other organization. |
EIA Program Contact: Al Gerard, (202) 586-4208
EIA Press Contact:
EIA-2005-02
File Last Modified: January 7, 2005
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