Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a great pleasure to join with the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) and our Fossil Energy Headquarters in sponsoring the first DOE Joint Oil and Gas Conference. I am delighted to report over 230 people in attendance. The National Petroleum Technology Office enjoys more and more benefits working with FETC than ever before. I would like to recognize Rita Bajura and her organization for their great support of our office. Thank you, Rita. The technical presentations you will hear in the next few days were selected for the success and state of development of the projects they describe. Assistant Secretary Gee has already mentioned our pride about the 1999 Hart's Oil and Gas World awards. One of the presentations on the agenda is an awardee: The Best Advanced Recovery Project of the Gulf Coast by Hughes Eastern Corporation of Jackson, Mississippi, who used microflora in oil-bearing formations to selectively plug porous zones to increase oil recoveries in Alabama. Three other DOE projects not represented on the agenda but 1999 Best of the Regions winners, also, are the Best Field Improvement Project of the Pacific by Tidelands Oil Company who, with the City of Long Beach, developed a lower-cost hydrogen sulfide caustic scrubber program in Southern California; the Best Advanced Recovery Project of the Pacific by the University of Utah who developed a technique which restored production to some properties in Kern County, California; and the Best New Technology of the Midcontinent by LeNorman Energy Corporation who, with TRW, designed and installed a very successful alkali-surfactant-polymer flood in the Sho-Vel-Tum Field in Oklahoma. I know representatives are here from some of these winners. How about a round of applause for these projects.