International Energy Agency (IEA)

Overview
The IEA, an influential actor in the gathering and analysis of global energy statistics, has been around since 1974 and takes care of coordinating policy among consumer countries and has come to be known as the "consumer's OPEC". As a data source, it is the place to go for an an authoritative source of data on supply, transformation and consumption of major energy sources.

While it may be a less glossy product than the offerings by BP and Eni, the IEA does dip its toe into the infographics world with some dynamic maps showing European gas flows and various energy indicators. Data sets are searchable by country, region or product, or alternatively over 70 publications a year on oil, natural gas, prices and electricity can be downloaded for free. In addition, there are 30 priced publications a year released through the online bookshop on paper, PDF or CD-ROM.

The EIA's Energy Statistics Manual is available in nine languages and is a good primer to help sift through some of the jargon used in the data sets themselves.

Highlights
The 82-page pocket-sized book of Key World Energy Statistics is aimed precisely at non-specialist businessmen, journalists and students and means you need never be without an an answer to those tricky questions about net Angolan energy exports. The pocket guide contains a series of easy-to-grasp data tables and graphs.

The energy unit converter and glossary of acronyms, abbreviations and units of measurement are also thoughtful touches for anyone who has grappled with the distinctions between bcm, gce and gCO2/kWh!



Access
Accessible online, or archived monthly surveys downloadable free of charge in PDF or MS Excel format (see 'Publications/surveys free for download' under 'Statistics' tab).

The IEA also offers an online data service, either using novel 'pay-per-view' data cards or on a more standard annual subscription (1000 'Data Points' come in at €45, while an annual subscription to the complete World Energy Statistics and Balances is priced at €1400). The data service makes use of the Beyond 20/20 browser for easier manipulation of multi-dimensional data and creation of personalised spreadsheets.

How might I use it
The IEA's freely available document on petroleum product prices (in either PDF or Excel format) uses the data collected by the organisation and pulls it into the following graphs to compare price fluctuations in both gasoline and fuel oil split by region, between 2009-2012. In this case, the dotted line represents Japanese oil prices, the thinner line Europe and the thickest line North America. Prices charged for the various products which can be produced out of crude oil can vary depending on geographical, political and other factors, and by doing the legwork for us the EIA demonstrates how these differences show themselves in the case of gasoline and fuel oil.

Further down the document, the full data to back up the graphical representations are available in table form.