Joint Organisations Data Initiative

Six international organisations - APEC, Eurostat, IEA, OLADE, OPEC and the UNSD 1 - took up the challenge, combined their efforts, involved their Member Countries and in April 2001 launched the Joint Oil Data Exercise. The primary goal was not to build a database, but to raise awareness among oil market players about the need for more transparency in oil market data. The first priority of the six organisations was to assess the oil data situation in their respective member countries. The assessment included the collection of monthly oil statistics from each organisation's member countries through a harmonized questionnaire on 42 key oil data points. Participants in the 5th JODI Conference in October 2004 then strongly recommended that this joint global database should be made freely accessible to all – organisations, countries, industry, analysts and others.