Jodi shines light on the oil market
Everyone likes transparency, but not everyone likes to share data. The IEF is still convinced its Jodi database is the answer
AT A conference sixteen years ago in Riyadh, the International Energy Forum (IEF) came up with a plan. Better data, it hoped, would bring transparency to global oil markets and reduce volatility in prices. The International Energy Agency, Opec, Eurostat and others all agreed, pledging to get their member countries to hand over production, consumption, imports and stocks data - all to be collected in a single publication. By 2002, the Joint Oil Data Initiative (Jodi) was up and running, and 70 countries had joined. The idea was faultless. More transparency in energy markets - Jodi began reporting gas statistics in 2014 - would provide more predictability to consumers and producers alike; and
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