More than gray matter

July 21, 2003
It is said that humans use only a small portion of the capacity of our brains.

It is said that humans use only a small portion of the capacity of our brains. Some give thanks regularly that this is not a measurable point of comparison.

How much use subscribers might make of the valuable information that Oil & Gas Journal provides in two media is the subject of this column. Faithful a reader as you may be, if you concentrate on the magazine alone, you are not obtaining nearly all of the information we make available to you.

Combination subscription

Our web site, OGJ Online, contains a considerable amount of news and periodical information posted every business day that is free to anyone. Those articles are posted for varying numbers of days or hours, after which they go into archive and can be accessed only by subscribers.

Anyone who subscribes to OGJ magazine also has access to the subscribers-only areas.

The magazine contains a fixed amount of space for editorial material that is based on the number of pages published week to week. The website, however, is practically limitless in capacity.

Any reader who does not examine the web site is not seeing all of the information that OGJ's staff and network of correspondents provide.

Even for readers less familiar with computers, OGJ Online is simple to negotiate. That is partly because the web site is organized in the same manner as the magazine: Subjects are listed in the upstream-to-downstream order of flow in the industry: General Interest, Exploration & Development, Drilling & Production, Processing, and Transportation.

First time users

Our information is that OGJ Online is a high-traffic site, that it has users in most countries, and that those who use it generally spend a considerable time on the site at each visit.

However, some subscribers might not have had the inclination to try the web site, so here are a few points that might make the first time easier.

Only two pieces of information are needed for a subscriber to access the website. One is the subscriber number from the mailing label on your copy of the magazine, and the other is your e-mail address.

Connect to the internet and go to Oil & Gas Journal Online (http://www.ogjonline.com). When the home page appears, click on Subscribe, a word just below the gold medallion, "A Century of Industry Leadership," near the top center. An image of the magazine will appear. Click on the third item, OGJ Customer Service.

Click the third box, Customer Service Assistance, and you will be taken to a Subscriber Login screen. Click the second item, Log In to OGJ Online. Type your name, mailing address, and e-mail address in the five fields and click the Login button.

Read more and sooner

That brings me to the newest innovation at OGJ Online.

Premium articles are published in the area represented by each industry segment as much as 10 days before the date of the magazine issue in which they appear.

Examples of these premium articles are those in OGJ's exclusive 6-week series of special reports titled, "Future Energy Supply." The series started with several articles on the subject of oil depletion in the July 14 issue, but the articles were available on OGJ Online more than a week earlier.

Themes of the succeeding five issues are natural gas potential, heavy oil and tar sands, potential from improved oil recovery, refining adjustments, and alternative energy. Writing and coordinating editorial material for the series is Bob Williams, OGJ Executive Editor

Searching archives

Another popular feature of OGJ Online is the ability to search the archives.

OGJ began building the web site in the early 1990s. At first, we posted only the text of articles. We began posting the graphics in 1995-96 as the capability came along.

At the top right of the home page is a white box next to a button marked FIND.

Type a word in that box, such as the name of a country, author's name, formation, refinery, crude oil, field, block name, block number, pipeline, process, sedimentary basin, or literally any other word. Click the FIND button, and the system returns a reference to every article that contained the character set you chose since Jan. 1, 1990.

You alone may decide whether this is more than you wanted to know, or could it be a resource your brain had not yet informed you is available?