Distortion, illusion and confusion: how to improve global oil market data

This text is based on presentations by the author in the opening and closing sessions of a conference on World Oil Market Data — Enhancing Transparency called and addressed by the US Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson and Vice-President and Minister of the Economy Rodrigo de Rato and held in the Palace Hotel, Madrid on 14–15 July 2000. It was attended by 20 staff members of the US Department of Energy, 20 senior Spanish officials, one invited representative from each of 20 countries, a number of invited speakers and a group from the International Energy Agency, Paris led by Deputy Executive Director, Ambassador William Ramsay and Head of Energy Statistics, Jean-Yves Garnier. “The mind which has feasted on the luxurious wonders of fiction has no taste for the insipidity of truth” – Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709–1784