"the petroleum industry as a whole. The publication now comes in different formansa printed book, in FDF and inter tive electronic forms that can be downloaded from the OPEC web www.spec.ong and vio our house intranet service Finally, CD-ROM, which comes with the book, hea information disting back to OPEC's inception in 1960, which enables the reader to better process both historical and latest dala
This wide-ranging availability is intended to sonsly the diverse needs of our readers and to ensure that the publication's dan daseminated to the widest possible audience globally. This year, we are pleased to announce that there is an even greaner wooll of information and data of the readers' disposal. For example, the time frame in the first section, which cames the Summary Tables and Basic Indication, now dates back to 1969, instead of the previous time line of 1983. This med omplong the quality and depth of coverage, which, in turn, will further enhance the publication's standing as a reliable source of oil and gas data on the Organization and its Member Countries.
A review of the data documented for 2004 shows clearly how OPEC responded to a unique year when s seen factors combined to push oil prices to record high levels. Looking of the stuation through the OPEC (ORB) we con sen just how volatile the situation actually was. The ORB began the year of my borrel, hit a record high of over $45 in Odober, and ended the year at just below $36/b (Table 711 after taking inflation and exchange rates into account, the record high prices seen in the year were $30 in real terms of the 1978 level (Table 73), OPEC, in its bid to stabilize prices at reasonable levels, net on no fewer than was of Minstenal level during 2004, boosting production by olmost 3 million borrels per day Table 13), with crude oil sponsing by well 2 mb/d (Table 23)
The live sections that make up the ASB plet the course of this exceptional yeas, is which Member Countries saw the value of petroleum exports soor by $100 billion (Table 5) and current accounts regaler shong surpluses (Table 7), which spelled good news for their various domestic socio-economic development programmes. Looking at the breakdown of the publication, Section 1 Summary tables and basic indicators contains a general summary of various economic, oil and gas industry data with an emphasis on OPEC Member Coureries. Section 2: Oil and gas data has detailed information on upstream and downstream activiles, covering not only OPEC, but also the most prominent countries worldwide in each sector in Section 3: Transportation data on developments in transportation, tonker fleets, freight rates and pipelines is included, while Section 4 Prices provides information on various crude and petroleum product pricing Section 5. Major oll componies covers the evolution of financial and operational indicators related to the activities of the major all firms."