Oil & Gas Journal editors receive questions every day from readers and researchers. The inquiries usually involve the industry or OGJ-related matters.
The question that floods this editor’s Outlook inbox and keeps the voicemail red-light indicator on is: How are the surveys conducted?
Steps
It all begins with communication. A comprehensive collection of contact information for each survey is updated regularly. The databases contain phone and fax numbers, e-mail and business addresses, dates of previous responses, and other company information.
The survey forms and a letter describing the intensive industry study are typically e-mailed to the contacts about 4 months prior to the publication date. The letter also states the response deadline, which is about 2 months before the issue is published. Previous responses or the company’s data in the latest survey are provided when requested.
The forms and letter are sent by mail when the contact prefers or when an e-mail address is unavailable. This mailing includes a postage-paid business reply envelope.
Contacts who have not submitted data receive a reminder with the survey forms about 3 weeks before the deadline. When the deadline arrives, this editor attempts a third round of reminders, phone calls mostly, to the major companies, contacts that planned on responding but forgot, and late responders. The aim of this aggressive follow-up effort is to keep from simply rolling a company’s data over from the previous year’s survey.
Responses go into Excel spreadsheets. The presentation editors then format the tables and create electronic pages available online to subscribers.
The OGJ Online Research Center also formats the spreadsheets but keeps the files in Excel arrangement. These are available for purchase.
More questions
Other popular questions are: How do I access the surveys? Can you walk me through your web site to view the surveys? How do I purchase the surveys in Excel? What does the construction survey include? When will the survey be up?
Readers can access the surveys at www.ogjonline.com. Go to the Current Issue box on the left side of the screen, and click on the ninth bullet, OGJ Subscriber Surveys. This link provides a list of the following surveys: OGJ 200/100 (the OGJ 200 is conducted by Statistics Editor Laura Bell), Worldwide Construction (semiannual), Worldwide Gas Processing, Worldwide Refining, Worldwide Production (conducted by Senior Editor-Economics Marilyn Radler), Ethylene, Worldwide EOR (biennial), and Catalyst Compilation (biennial). Click on a survey link from the list. For example, clicking on Worldwide Gas Processing takes the reader to the latest report as well as previous editions of the survey.
The link above the survey list, Surveys and Reports in Excel, leads to order forms and instructions on purchasing spreadsheet versions of the data. The direct web address is: www.ogj.com/resourcecenter/orc_survey.cfm. Free samples are also downloadable from this site. For more information on the Excel versions, call 918-831-9488, or e-mail the Online Research Center at [email protected].
The twice-yearly Worldwide Construction Update surveys provide project information in the areas of refining, petrochemicals, gas processing, LNG, gas-to-liquids and other gas, sulfur, and pipelines. Details include the company and location, project type, added capacity, status (planning, engineering, under construction), expected completion date, and contractor and contract type.
Also included is a project-notes column. This section provides additional information on the construction project and varies with the thoroughness of responses. It specifies whether a project is new or an expansion. It also mentions upgrades and revamps. Investors, project cost in US dollars, and other details are listed if available.
Editorial Calendar
To see when surveys will appear in OGJ, check the Editorial Calendar online. Click on the second bullet, Media Kit, in the Current Issue box. Go to the Additional Information box, and click on Editorial Calendar to look at the weekly special report topics with brief descriptions.
This editor has answered some of your questions, so please answer OGJ’s—on the survey forms.
