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The Big Data Revolution In Oil Is Accelerating Posted on : May 29 - 2017

It was about time big data entered the lives of Big Oil. Yet it's not happening exactly as expected. Oil companies are not making a mad dash to collect and process unstructured data in order to make sense of it and use it to expand or improve their business. No, it's individuals and startups that are leveraging the potential of these unstructured data to supply it in a structured and useful way to oil traders.

The oil industry is notoriously opaque, especially those parts of it that are grouped in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran does not release information about its tanker loads, for example. China does not release updates about its oil reserves. Yet this is information that, like the EIA's weekly petroleum updates, can push prices up or down very quickly.

So far, there have been a few large providers of these data, such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. Now, there are startups popping up all over the place, using algorithms to collect and make sense of shipping data, tanker tracking info, news, reports, and customs data, writes Georgi Kantchev for the Wall Street Journal.

One of these newcomers is Kayrros, which says its mission is to enable smarter investment decisions in the energy industry. The company says it combines analysis of satellite images and social news with financial and technical data to complete this mission, using data science, machine learning, and advanced mathematical models.

Another startup, Vortexa, says on its website that it is helping traders—large and successful ones—to beat their rivals by providing them with real-time market data on oil flows. The company says it collects information from billions of data points and hundreds of sources and interprets it by using artificial intelligence. View More