For most of its 105 years in print, Oil & Gas Journal has published multiple series of industry statistics.
In formats that have varied through the years, the numbers have covered industry functions such as production, drilling activity, and refinery operations. Oil and gas prices, too, long have been part of the numerical picture OGJ presents of the industry it covers.
Inevitably, the data series themselves have evolved. Sources change. New data series emerge, and some lose relevancy and expire.
OGJ’s statistical offering now is more comprehensive than ever. It’s also complex. Some tables in the Statistics section appear every week, but some appear only once a month. While not as confusing as it might seem, the schedule bears repeating from time to time.
For many years, the weekly tables have included US data from the American Petroleum Institute on imports of crude and products, crude and product stocks, and refinery operations. Other weekly tables come from several sources and include crack spreads; prices of gasoline, US and world crude, and refined products; production of crude oil and lease condensate; the Baker Hughes and Smith rig counts; and US natural gas storage.
The schedule
Monthly data, of course, need special scheduling.
The first issue of each month offers Pace refining margins, worldwide NGL production, US natural gas balance, oxygenates, and US heating and cooling degree days.
The second issue of the month includes a full-page table of worldwide oil and gas production, by country.
On the third week, OGJ’s Statistics section presents the international rig count, oil import freight costs, US LNG imports, the Baker Oil Tools workover rig count, propane prices, and four tables from Muse, Stancil & Co. on margins: refining, gas processing, ethylene, and marketing.
Fourth-week offerings are the world oil balance, OECD net oil imports, OECD imports from OPEC, oil stocks in OECD countries, and US petroleum imports by source country.
One further wrinkle complicates this schedule. OGJ is published every Monday except for the last Monday of the year and on fifth Mondays of the three or four months each year that have them. Weekly tables that would appear in OGJ’s dark Mondays double up with their counterparts on following Mondays.
As OGJ Statistics Editor Laura Bell-probably the only person on Earth who can recite this schedule from memory-can attest, the program covers a lot of numbers. Historical series for most of them are available for purchase through the OGJ Online Research Center, a link to which appears on the left side of OGJ Online’s home page (www.ogj.com).
Nothing stays the same, though. Changes are coming to OGJ’s statistical reporting.
Starting July 16, API data on imports, stocks, and refinery operations will give way to numbers on the same subjects from the US Energy Information Administration. Other than minor differences in a few subcategories, the tables will change little.
The main difference will be timing. OGJ’s reporting lag with API has been about a week and a half. API data in this week’s issue thus are for the week that ended June 22.
The reporting lag for EIA statistics on imports, stocks, and refining will be a week longer than that. When the new EIA series start July 16, the numbers will be for the week that ended June 29. The numerical vintages for these operational categories then will match those of OGJ’s three other weekly data series from EIA: refined product prices, world crude prices, and US gas storage.
Historical series in the new EIA data categories, unlike those for the API series they replace, are available in the Online Research Center.
New table
Another change will appear in the Statistics section July 16.
The section will include a new monthly table from Waterborne Energy, Houston, on US imports of LNG. It will replace the monthly table of similar data from EIA. In this case, the reporting lag will shrink to 1 1/2 months from 2 1/2 months. Otherwise, the table will be like the one it replaces, showing imports by country of origin.
As long as numbers remain vital pieces of the oil and gas story, OGJ will report statistics-even if people other than OGJ’s busy statistics editor need a printed program to know what numbers will appear on a given week in those tan pages at the back of the magazine.
