New Global Oil Data Report Off To Slow Start

Thursday, Aug 24, 2006

STAVANGER, Norway (Dow Jones)--A new online database that aims to boost transparency in global energy markets is so far failing to prove a big hit with oil analysts and other industry observers.

Nine months after it was launched, fewer industry participants than expected are using the web-based Joint Oil Data Initiative, or JODI, officials spearheading the project said Thursday.

The database serves up monthly oil supply and demand data from nearly all of the world's energy consuming and producing nations. JODI's aim is to assist energy market participants in making informed investment decisions by providing reliable and complete oil-related data.

The International Energy Forum, which runs the program and is underwritten by Saudi Arabia, began to make the data it collects and collates available to the public last November.

But oil markets' interest in looking at the data has so far been tepid, said Arne Walther, the IEF's Secretary General, at an industry conference here.

"The (web) traffic has not been as much as we have desired ... We're at a starting point (in this project)," Walther said.

Walther and JODI analyst Bruno Castellano said that they did not have any rough estimates available on web traffic or usage.

The IEF has faced several challenges, including the quality and timeliness of data submitted, since the idea was conceived in 2001. Many countries use different definitions and methodologies in calculating their oil data.

JODI has 93 participating countries, but the emphasis is on securing quality data from the top 30 producing and consuming nations, including China, India and Saudi Arabia.

The goal of the project is to publish numbers no older than a month. The data cover oil and products production, demand and stockpiles, and feature crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and total oil.

Some countries have improved data submissions since the launch of the database, including Brazil, but others still lag, Castellano said.

"Venezuela we have the biggest problem with" in both the type and timing of data submitted, he said. He added that Venezuela had recently agreed to take a data-collection training course offered by the IEF.

The IEF, anxious not to be seen to criticize contributing countries too harshly, uses a rating system of smiley, indifferent, and frowning faces to track the timeliness and completeness of countries' data submissions.

China, the world's second biggest energy consumer after the United States, receives indifferent faces for both the timeliness and completeness of the data it submits.

The International Energy Agency, the energy security watchdog of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, is currently the leading publisher of worldwide energy data and its statistics from OECD members are generally seen as reliable.

But IEA data from non-OECD countries is often late or incomplete, leading the IEF to try to improve the data by attempting to secure direct contributions from non-OECD countries.