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U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION NOTE TO EDITORS: Customers Need Information Quickly When Oil Prices Spike With oil prices on the rise, customers are turning to the web for quick information. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports today that customer sessions on their website (www.eia.doe.gov) this February were up 40% from the level only one month earlier and up more than 140% from the level in February 1999. Calls and e-mail inquiries to the Information Center in February were 56% above January levels. The usefulness of EIA information, especially diesel price data, to customers in times of market instability is proven by the numbers: In February EIA had 340,000 user sessions, with 2.4 million file downloads (also up 40 percent from January). A record was set on February 22, with 35,000 user sessions in a single day. By comparison, the highest single day before this year was 10,400 user sessions. EIA Information Center telephones rang off the hook in February, with 2,200 calls for the month, compared with about 1,400 calls in January. Many callers wanted the most current diesel prices in their region of the country, from EIA's weekly survey of diesel prices. One cell phone caller actually was on the highway driving his 18-wheeler as he checked on diesel prices. EIA's Diesel and Gasoline Hotline (202-586-6966), a recorded message with the latest prices, also has been bombarded since the beginning of the year. The latest figures available show nearly 34,000 calls to the Hotline in January, up from 17,000 in December 1999 and 5,000 one year ago. EIA has energy data, analyses, and forecasts on many subjects, but the run-ups in web use and telephone calls were the direct result of higher oil prices. Customers generally know just where to go to get the information they need. The majority of diesel customers go directly to the diesel pages, rather than through the home page. EIA is instrumental in providing information to help markets run more efficiently and to help people understand what is going on with energy prices.
EIA Press Contact: National Energy Information Center, 202-586-8800 EIA-2000-04 Contact:
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