IEF-OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks reached its objective of offering a platform for experts to discuss energy outlooks and gain a better understanding of the interests and concerns of each Organization. It also helped in identifying and discussing the similarities and differences between the outlooks, in order to advance clarity in terms of the data, assumptions, methodologies and the analysis of the results of these outlooks. Ministers commended the efforts made by the three Organizations and encouraged them to take the work forward on harmonizing definitions, disaggregations etcetera and further clarifying differences in energy outlooks to the market. In this context, the second Symposium on Energy Outlooks to be held in 2012 will provide a good opportunity to take stock of the progress made. The objective of the Joint Oil Data Initiative ((JODI), now relabeled Joint Organizations Data Initiative, is to achieve a step change in provision of timely, high quality and transparent oil market data which is essential to the stability of oil markets. While reaffirming their commitment to providing timely and accurate data to JODI, Energy Ministers have envisaged co-operation in expanding, in due course, the initiative to include data on other sources of energy that are important in the world energy mix, and disseminate other data relevant to the energy markets such as natural gas and annual investment in oil and gas upstream and downstream. The extension of JODI to cover monthly natural gas data is now well under way, including cooperation with the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), and will hopefully result in the first launch of JODI-gas to the market before the end of 2011. --More
