Every day the list of users grows. At this writing, we have almost 100 users of the material-balance Excel application. It pleases us that in some small way we can transfer some simple, yet effective technology to others in the industry.

It would have been almost unthinkable 10 years ago that an engineer in India, who we have never met, would be using one of our analytical tools that he acquired on-line in a few short minutes from thousands of miles away.

As engineers, we are conservative by nature, much like lawyers and accountants, and as such, we have never felt the need to launch a major advertising campaign. Something like that just wouldn’t fit us or our image. However, in the last few years, law and accounting firms and even engineering firms have begun marketing their services in understated, yet effective ways. In this vein, we have begun a marketing program with the development of communication tools, our newsletter and web site, that will carry our message to the petroleum industry.

And it is this message that is important. We would hope to impart useful information to you our reader. In this issue, we cite important changes from the MMS that will affect the reporting of production on federal leases.

We have also announced our new FTP site that facilitates data transfer both ways between the client and us. And, of course, we offer information on our newest website download. We hope to have other articles with information you can use in your day-to-day activities.