{"id":126000,"date":"2025-03-11T09:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/anthropology\/movement-and-meaning-for-oil-and-gas-data-vendors\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T09:12:25","slug":"movement-and-meaning-for-oil-and-gas-data-vendors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=126000","title":{"rendered":"Movement and Meaning for Oil and Gas Data Vendors"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In figure 1, the pen in John\u2019s hand points to a column on the computer screen. On the same screen are other columns. But the column that John points to is the problem. \u201cThis column\u201d, he explains, \u201chas superior placement\u201d over other columns. And to John, this superior placement is all wrong!<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. John points to a problem. Photo by author.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I begin this essay by noting that on Fashion Street in the White Chapel area of downtown London and inside a refurbished nineteenth century clothing factory \u2013 a handful of analysts including John, spend long hours managing a database on oil and gas corporate performance. These analysts compile and curate corporate data on energy procurement, mainly oil and natural gas production, so that clients, mainly investors, can better assess comparisons of individual (or peer group) corporate performance across industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Figure 2 shows two stacks of Oil and Gas Finance Trading<\/em>, a glossy magazine reporting the latest news on global energy asset management. The copies in this image lay at the office entrance to where John works and are available for free to any visitor of the refurbished sweatshop. Within its pages, a glowing review celebrates the skills of John and his fellow analysts, describing them as gathering a wide range of operating data from the annual and quarterly reporting of over 300 publicly listed energy companies.<\/p>\n

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John applies quantitative methods for gaining insight into the operational efficiency and profitability of different companies so that his clients can \u201cevaluate\u201d energy corporate performance over time and relative to other corporate performances.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Figure 2. Copies at office entrance. Photo by author.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to John\u2019s description, he creates \u201cfinancial ratios\u201d. What this means I cannot say. But in telling me so, I gather that he applies quantitative methods for gaining insight into the operational efficiency and profitability of different companies so that his clients can \u201cevaluate\u201d energy corporate performance over time and relative to other corporate performances. Investors of corporate valuations frequently assume they have all the relevant data at their fingertips. But such confidence is misplaced if they do not understand the data management process. Thus, investors rely on data management vendors like John for his completeness, integrity, and timeliness of service for the quality of their business decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My understanding of John\u2019s data management activity involves at least two operations: first, he reaches across the internet extracting specified information, and second, through proprietary algorithms, he redistributes this information to the computer screen in a standardized visible format. This format enables clients to \u201cevaluate\u201d energy through making standardized comparisons of valuation, for example, operations of oil and gas wells within global basins, mergers and acquisitions, production licenses, and more, serving as the basis for client investment decisions.\u00a0Given the need of investors to evaluate energy corporate performance and given the money they spend so that John can procure knowledge to evaluate energy companies, it should come as no surprise that the name of the company that John works for is, indeed, Evaluate Energy.<\/em><\/p>\n

During my visit to Evaluate Energy I gained cursory insight into the way analysts work with data and how clients gain value from the Evaluate online proprietary database. Figure 3 depicts the office space where I observed the work routines of one dozen Evaluate analysts. Evaluate founder and CEO, Richard Krijgsman, who I met in Moscow at the 11th Russian Petroleum and Gas Congress or RPGC, coordinated my visit. Among the RPGC delegates attending from energy companies, contractors, and suppliers were high ranking employees of Gazprom, Rosneft, Schlumberger, and Halliburton. The congress also attracts CEOs of consulting firms like Richard Krijgsman who aim to identify new clients.<\/p>\n

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Figure 3. Evaluate office. Photo by author.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Before returning to the problem that I began this story with, of the wrongness of a column\u2019s superior placement on a computer screen<\/em>, I want to mention that my awareness of this wrong came about because of my curiosity over John\u2019s physical movement at the Evaluate office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To explain: analysts at the Evaluate office spend long days staring at their computer screens gathering data and managing\u00a0financial reporting on oil and gas developments. The day begins at 9:30AM and ends at 5PM. Often, I encountered analysts in the office between 8AM and 7PM. They take lunch breaks no longer than 45 minutes outside the office and oftentimes eat at their desks. Apart from eyeball movement, blinking, and constant finger typing, there is little bodily movement throughout the day. The din of fingers typing onto plastic keyboards is constant. I recorded the sound of the room with its steady striking of the keyboard and which I invite you to listen as you read the remaining part of the essay.<\/p>\n