Claiming that it has thoroughly tested the “electronic gate” system that was set up to ensure equal access to its natural gas and oil inventory reports, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Monday that it will move both reports’ standard release time back to their 10:30 a.m. EST time slots.

Because energy traders anxiously await the release of the Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) and the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR) to help them form their trading strategies, EIA has said it is important that every one has the same access at the same time. Since early June EIA has been delaying the scheduled releases for five minutes as part of a larger effort to assure that the data remained physically inaccessible before the release time.

The change back to the original time is effective beginning with the WPSR release on Wednesday Jan. 7 and with the WNGSR release on Thursday Jan. 8.

EIA loads these reports behind an electronic gate that prevents access to the data before the release time. At the release time, the gate is removed and interested parties can access the information. “Over the past several months, EIA has thoroughly tested its electronic gate system and eliminated all identified problems, materially reducing the likelihood of an inadvertent early release of either weekly product,” the government agency said.

EIA noted that the changes to the release times do not reflect EIA’s response to comments received as a result of the Oct. 15 Federal Register notice that requested public input on the process and technologies used for disseminating the WPSR and the WNGSR. The public comment period closed on Nov. 14. The comments received are currently under review, EIA said.

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