Oil Statistics

Oil statistics include data about the oil industry. The important sub-groups in oil statistics include:

• prices
• demand and supply
• inventories
• oil reserves
• oil futures
• tanker market
• rig count
• capacity additions.

Price statistics include not only prices of crude oil, but also that of refined products such as gasoline and heating oil. Crude oil prices hold enormous significance for economies, industries, companies and consumers.

Oil statistics and crude oil

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is an important type of crude oil. Most of the WTI crude oil is produced in the Midwest region of the USA and some of it in the Gulf of Mexico. The WTI crude oil enjoys a price premium over Brent Crude. The Brent crude oil refers to crude oils produced by oil fields in the Brent and Ninian systems in the North Sea. The WTI and Brent crude oils enjoy a premium over the basket price of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The OPEC basket price is a reference price incorporating the prices of eleven crude oils from its member countries.

Oil statistics relating to crude oil futures contracts indicate the future direction of the crude oil prices. The prices of crude oil futures contracts on New York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX futures, are followed all over the world.

Oil statistics relating to demand and supply indicate the current status of the oil industry. The oil production in OPEC and non-OPEC countries has important implications for world oil prices. In 2004, OPEC members accounted for 41.9% of world crude oil production and 78.4% of proved crude oil reserves in the world.

OPEC influences world oil prices through production adjustments. The production adjustments are made on the basis of a price band mechanism. The recent upsurge in oil prices has forced OPEC to abandon the price band mechanism. Yet OPEC continues to influence prices through production changes. Usually, production decisions are taken during periodic meetings of the OPEC members. OPEC has significant influence over crude oil prices despite lower spare oil production capacity.

Oil statistics relating to consumption are equally important. Consumption statistics in upcoming countries such as China affect global prices of crude oil. Inventories also influence crude oil prices. Inventories or stocks refer to the oil in various points of the supply chain such as pipelines, oil tankers, and storage terminals. Stocks are also held in independent storage facilities in trade centres such as Singapore. Strategic petroleum reserves of governments also form a part of the stocks.

Oil statistics on world oil reserves

The estimation of oil reserves is a complicated and controversial activity, with countries and companies frequently accused of misrepresenting oil reserves. While proved oil reserves include oil reserves that can be commercially recovered, unproved reserves include reserves that are yet to be validated, commercially and technically. Unproved reserves are further divided into probable and possible reserves on the basis of probability. While the recovery possibility in probable reserves is about 50%, the same rate for possible reserves is lower at about 10%. Oil statistics relating to the tanker market such as oil movements and freight rates are also widely tracked.