Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Procurement Operations Branch, MS2500, 381 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170-4817

B -- DEEPWATER PROGRAM: THE FATE AND EFFECTS OF SYNTHETIC-BASED DRILLING FLUIDS AND ASSOCIATED CUTTINGS DISCHARGED INTO THE MARINE ENVIORNMENT SOL D.O. 15128 DUE 062698 POC Katherine A. Valltos, Contracting Officer (703) 787-1354 WEB: MMS Homepage which provides general information about our organization and our mission, http://www.mms.gov. E-MAIL: Contracting Officer's e-mail address, Katherine.Valltos@mms.gov. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) intends to enter into negotiations with the intent to issue a sole-source award to Robert Ayers Associates, Post Office Box 272706, Houston, TX 77277. Authority for this sole source procurement is FAR 6.302-1. The award will be made under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures FAR 13. The contract will provide a study that will focus on the impact of disposal of the Synthetic-based drilling fluids (SBF) on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. The objective of the study is to produce a review document from already existing information on the continental shelf. The review document will focus primarily on the results of the American Petroleum Institute (API) study entitled: "Environmental Effects of Cuttings from Synthetic Based Drilling Fluids: A Literature Review." Robert Ayers and Associates performed the study and wrote the report for API. The report from the API study was intended for API's internal use and is not available in the public domain. However, API has agreed to work cooperatively with MMS, for the sake of efficiency and collegiality, and permit the API report to be used as a starting point for the MMS study. The MMS will update and enhance the API report by incorporating additional data. The outcome of the cooperation between API and MMS will be a synthesis of available existing information into a scientifically valuable document which will be available for use by the MMS, industry and the general public. Without the cooperation between API and MMS, the report from the API study would be unavailable for the incorporation into the current effort. Since the information resulting from the MMS study is time sensitive the duplication of the API study would result in an unacceptable delay and the cost of the redundant effort would be exorbitant. Therefore, only Robert Ayers Associates has the unique capabilities, knowledge, expertise and technical knowledge to successfully perform the MMS study. All responses should be faxed to the contracting officer at (703) 787-1387 by June 26, 1998. See Note 22. (0131)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0012 19980513\B-0007.SOL)