JODI-Oil FAQs

The Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) is a concrete outcome of the producer-consumer dialogue. In 2001, six pioneering organisations (APEC, Eurostat, IEA, OLADE, OPEC and UNSD) answered the call by Energy Ministers at the 7th IEF Ministerial in 2000 in Riyadh to address the issue of the lack of data transparency in oil markets, seen as a cause of excessive price fluctuations, and established the Joint Oil Data Exercise. The Initiative was established as a permanent mechanism in 2003 and Jodi, the "Joint Oil Data Initiative" was born. Following endorsement by Ministers, the IEF Secretariat assumed the role and responsibility as the co-ordinator of Jodi in January 2005. The JODI partners’ successful establishment of oil data provision architecture inspired IEF Ministers to call for an extension of the Initiative to cover natural gas (JODI-Gas) and annual data on upstream and downstream capacity and expansion plans (JODI Investment). To accommodate progress on these new challenges beyond oil data transparency, the seven Jodi partner organisations have now re-branded Jodi as the Joint Organisations Data Initiative.

The JODI provides a reliable, freely accessible and comprehensive database of energy statistics unlike any other in the world. Through the use of nationally-sanctioned data, which can be difficult if not impossible to access through alternative avenues, JODI offers a fair assessment of global oil consumption and production on a monthly basis. Data uncertainty can be detrimental to fair market operations. By improving data transparency, undue price volatility can be moderated, increasing investor confidence and contributing to greater stability in energy markets worldwide. JODI, as a database and broader collaborative, is instrumental to the pursuit of complete energy data transparency.

About 10 years ago at the early stages of the energy data transparency initiative focused on oil data, the Initiative received responses with the monthly JODI-Oil questionnaires from 55 countries. There were only about 40 countries reporting data with a two month delay from the reference month (M-2 data). Today, around 80 countries regularly report the JODI-Oil questionnaire and around 70 countries report the data of the most recent month (M-1) on monthly basis. JODI is not only about proving energy databases. JODI is a means towards promoting energy dialogue between energy producing and consuming countries, which has fostered the Initiative and enabled hundreds of professionals across the energy value chain to commit to share key information determining the fundamental of energy markets. Eight JODI organisations work together on a daily basis to achieve this objective.

Deadline for submission is the 25th of each month. The JODI questionnaires is an in Excel format, available on the JODI website, and includes two worksheets: one for month M-1 and one for month M-2. Countries can submit their data to the organisation(s) they belong to in the unit of their choice (barrels, tons or litres). Information about definitions of flows/products is available on the JODI website. The JODI Manuals can be downloaded from the JODI website and provides additional information about the methodology and definitions used in JODI.

After a two year trial period, the seven JODI partner organisations implemented an extended JodiOil questionnaire following endorsement by the 7th International JODI-Oil Conference in Quito. This extended format gives a more complete picture of the market and allows for a more accurate supply / demand assessment.

The JODI-Oil World Database, administered by the IEF, is comprised of seven product categories and eight flows based on the initial JODI-Oil questionnaire (see www.jodidata.org). Data submitted by the six partner organisations (APEC, Eurostat, IEA, OLADE, OPEC and UNSD) is available in three different units (barrels, tons and litres), for nearly 100 participating countries/economies from January 2002 to the most recent update. The JODI-Oil WDB can be accessed free of charge on the JODI-Oil website (www.jodidata.org). The JODI-Oil WDB's user friendly graphic interface offers data users easy and efficient browsing of the database.

The data are submitted by the national authority of the participating country. These data are considered authoritative and are not subject to alteration by any of the JODI partner organisations. However, in case there is a need for data clarification, each organisation is responsible for contacting the national authorities of its membership directly, before feeding official responses back to users.

JODI participating countries and JODI partner organisations are continuously working to improve data quality. Partner organisations conduct regional training workshops on the initiative to offer statisticians and experts from participating countries an opportunity to clarify and improve their knowledge of definitions, data quality assessment and oil and gas data issues, and to share their experience on best practices of oil and gas data management. Moreover, the IEF hosts JODI Internship programmes at its headquarters in Riyadh, for officials from developing countries with direct responsibility to fill JODI questionnaires.

Oil is the most traded commodity on the planet, while it has not always been transparent. Also, oil prices influence the prices of other commodities, as well other forms of energy.