Effective strategic planning in the oil industry requires a set of assumptions that is comprehensive, global, and internally consistent. Developing the detailed assumptions and bases necessary requires time-consuming analysis by experts in many different disciplines. In its updated study, Planning for Tomorrow: PIRA’s Five-Year Outlook for Crude Oil and Refined Products Markets, 2009-2014, PIRA saves companies the time associated with this arduous task by bringing together our global energy analysis, models, and forecasting intelligence to provide a comprehensive, internally consistent outlook for oil industry planning and market research. Subscribe before January 16, 2009, to save 10% on the fee. The study, due to be released in February 2009, features:
	·		A comprehensive online database that provides, by country:
			·  Economic growth and energy demand, by fuel and by sector
			·  Supply and demand for crude oil, call on OPEC, and crude oil prices
			·  Benchmark crude netback values
			·  Refined products supply and demand, prices, cracks, and refining margins
			·  Crude oil and key refined products trade flows, including freight rate outlook
	·		An executive summary.
	·		A PowerPoint presentation that explains the key assumptions, analysis and conclusions of the study.

Click here to see a full prospectus.

PIRA expects that global demand for distillate products will grow more slowly over the next 10 years than the last 10, but it will still be the fastest growing of the major oil products. On the supply side, a surge in refinery conversion capacity — much of it diesel-oriented — is more than what is needed to balance incremental supply with demand growth and will eliminate today's shortage of distillates. However, capacity additions and supply impacts will vary greatly by region. Substantial changes in distillation utilization, conversion utilization, and yields will result. Trading patterns will shift. PIRA will assess the impact of these forces in an upcoming multi-client study, “Heart of the Barrel: The Future for Middle Distillate Fuels.” Due for release in January 2009, the study features:
	·		An in-depth outlook of the factors driving global/regional middle distillate product usage.
	·		Analysis of the impact of tightening sulfur specifications.
	·		A detailed look at the production of middle distillate products.
	·		Analysis of interregional trade flows for jet/kero and diesel/gasoil and how they will evolve.
	·		Regional price forecasts relative to crude and other products, product quality differentials, and the key factors that will drive these relationships.
	·		Regional Reference Case projections through 2020, by year, as well as alternative scenarios that test the impact of key variables on those projections.

Click here to see a full prospectus.

To help clients gain a better understanding of today’s changing oil trade patterns — and anticipate the changes of tomorrow — PIRA has launched the Oil Trade Flow Portal. It provides detailed, interactive forecast balances and trade flows for crude and major refined products, both short-term (quarterly) and long-term (annual). Accessible through PIRA Online, the portal provides user-defined data tables, broken out into 13 distinct regions, on refinery product production/yields, crude production/runs, product demand, net inter-regional trade flows, inventory changes and so on. Clients of PIRA’s Oil Trade Flow Portal benefit from:
	·		Region-by-region balances and inter-regional net trade flows for crude/condensate, gasoline/blendstocks, jet/kero, gasoil/diesel, and heavy fuel oil.
	·		Quarterly forecasts through 4Q 2009.
	·		Annual forecast balances through 2020.
	·		Historical numbers extending back to 1995 for annual data; 2004 for quarterly breakouts.
	·		Flexible data retrieval (e.g., all regions for one time period, one region for multiple time periods).
	·		The ability to download data sets into spreadsheets, as well as the ability to generate reports and create “trade flow maps” and pie charts.

Click here to see a full prospectus.

The Energy Price Portal is more than just a convenient way to access PIRA’s integrated forecast data. It also features the Price Equation Manager, an innovative tool that allows users to integrate various price inputs and individual adjustment factors (including transportation economics) to create custom spreads or netbacks, which can then be stored for easy updating. No more fumbling through multiple data sources and no more tedious calculations: hours of work can now be executed — and re-executed using updated forecasts — in seconds. Portal users also benefit from:
	·		Historical data back to 1995 and forecasts to 2020.
	·		Instant ability to compare prices across different commodities.
	·		Options to view data in 16 different currencies — real or nominal — or in different units.
	·		Advanced charting capabilities, and exporting utility into Excel/CSV/PDF.

Click here to see a full prospectus.

With the rising globalization of gas trade, all market players need to focus on the critical role storage plays as a bridge between seasonal gas demand variations and prices. As major shifts in the supply/demand balance create a profound impact on LNG and pipeline gas pricing around the world, it will lead to questions as to how the world's diverse regional demand centers will evolve into a single global entity, like oil. What will a storage-short Asia do with LNG supplies in the summer? Will North America store gas for Europe and Asia? Will Europe shift from seasonal to maximum gas production to compete with LNG supplies?

PIRA answers these questions and assesses the impact of these emerging forces in the study, which comprises a detailed written report, online database, and workshop and which includes these key features:
     ·  An outlook of the factors driving each region’s future LNG and pipeline gas demand.
     ·  A detailed look at global gas storage capacity and how it will be utilized going forward.
     ·  An analysis of the role of demand seasonality in determining which markets will receive gas and when.
     ·  An assessment of the ideal relationship between storage capacity and seasonal gas demand.
     ·  An expansive database of key industry statistics — actual and forecast — that underpin the analysis         found in the report, including country-level demand, seasonal gas use, existing and future gas storage,         and price forecasts.

Click here to see a full prospectus.