[en] This volume of the proceedings contains the report of the International Gas Union's Working Committee G - Information and communication, and 11 oral poster papers about information systems used in the natural gas industries. (LN)

[en] Gas and Fuel is the sole supplier of reticulated natural gas to 1.3 m customers in the State of Victoria, Australia. Reporting is performed monthly and is tailored to satisfy the requirements of the Board, executive management and business units. The reports include profit and cash statements, gas sales data, capital expenditure, benchmarks, operational data and human resources information. The reports are a mixture of written commentary, accounting statements and graphical presentations. The reports are used at monthly Board and executive meetings to review performance and manage the business. (au)

[en] The company's knowledge and know-how take the concrete form of documents (texts, photographs, video tapes). For purposes of transmission, they must not only be stored, in electronic form today, but also retrieved easily and quickly. To further that end, Gaz de France (GDF) has compiled a bilingual (French, English) thesaurus on the gas industry. The English version was prepared in conjunction with NGTC, Canada's Natural Gas Technologies Center. This thesaurus, comprising descriptors organized according to relationships of genericness, specificity, association and documentary synonymity, is an integral part of the engineers' working enviroment at the NGTC, and GDF. The electronic version facilitates its use by company employees. Constantly available, it is helpful in describing and finding information readily. As a result of studies conducted in this regard: design and maintenance rules have been developed for the thesaurus; the thesaurus has been disseminated to all the engineers in the Company; the thesaurus has been incorporated in the Company's Electronic Document Management system. (au)

[en] Access to diverse databases has become quite natural for libraries and documentation centres in the gas industry. This sector is constantly expanding, and at the same time there are new opportunities for accessing numerous databases, information services and multimedia facilities via data networks. This situation report describes the new offerings on the IT market and attempts to examine them critically from the vantage point of the practical work of an information centre. The emphasis is on the provision of business information as this is currently the fastest growing area in the world market for database information. (au)

[en] This report describes the work and achievements of Committee G, its five Sub-Committees and the Working Group during the triennium 1994-1997. It sets out the structure that the Committee has been operating, and highlights the key results for presentation to the 20th World Gas Conference. Detailed reports prepared by the Sub-Committee and Working Group Chairman make up the largest part of the report. Statistics, documentation, dictionary, occupational health and the working environment in the gas industry, human resources and development and information technology are dealt with in depth. In addition to this report, the Committee has also completed the following publications for the 20th World Gas Conference: Statistical data 1993-1994-1995 (IGU/GI-97); International Classification for the Gas Industry (IGU/GII-97); Directory of Gas Industry Documentation Centres; Compilation of Gas Industry Legislation; 3rd. edition of the Multilingual Dictionary of the Gas Industry (volume 1); I.G.U. Conference Terminology (IGU/GIII-97). (au)

[en] Information underlies all manager's decision. It is somewhat raw material, the basic resource for the organisation and activity management. How to collect, treat, memorize, spread and integrate it into the decisionel process is the purpose of this communication: it is the conception of a computerized information systems at the Centre de Perfectionnement de l'Entreprise Sonatrach. (au)

[en] Toho Gas Co., Ltd. is Japan's third largest city gas supplier. In response to changes in the industrial environment, the company began the Integrated OA Project in 1994 promoting use of information technology while reforming its systems and culture. We made a proposal to distribute one personal computer connected to a company-wide network to each office worker. In addition, we attached importance to the creation of a database, which can integrate all information systems with a flexible structure and also play a central role in end user computing. A data model for the entire company has been already made and implemented into some operational systems and data-warehouses. Furthermore, to reform our business we are offering incremental goals, including the first step such as achieving a paper less working environment with a little effort. This methodology has achieved a great success. In the near future, we will expand the infrastructure with mobile computers and implementation of a database. (au)

[en] Communication and the transfer of technical information is critical to the international gas industry. The technical research results developed through Gas Research Institute's natural gas supply program have been disseminated through a number of vehicles. Two primary vehicles are GRI's Information Centers and Regional Technology Transfer Agents (RTTA). The Information Centers serve as repositories for GRI information as well as provide no-cost literature searching expertise. The RTTAs actively communicate and interface with area producers, introducing potential technology adopters with GRI technology managers and/or the appropriate licensed product or service distributors. The combination of Information Centers and RTTAs continues to help independent producers break through the barriers of technology and accelerate the benefits of lower cost natural gas recovery. (au)

[en] Experience gained in training and retraining of engineers for gas industry is considered in the report. The report contains the material on modern state of higher technical education in Russia in view of the reforms taking place in this country. The report deals with questions concerning the experience gained in a specialized training of gas engineers at higher educational establishments of Russia including training of specialists for foreign countries. Conditions under which retraining of engineers involved in gas industry takes place are presented in the report. The report is based mainly on the experience gained by the Russian leading higher educational establishment of oil and gas profile, that is the State Gubkin Oil and Gas Academy. (au)

[en] Contemporary marketing measures focus on recruiting new customers as a means of boosting sales. As the share of the market occupied by natural gas increases, the more probable it is that there will be dissatisfied customers who are prepared to switch to other energy sources. Systematic customer care measures are therefore a necessity ServicePro is a customer care concept that has been developed in response to this need. Its three modules are technical, contractual and general customer care. Practical local implementation is assisted by database software and a manual containing tools and examples. Customer care activities also strengthen customer relations and improve the gas utility's image. (au)