Ladies and gentlemen!
It gives me great pleasure to address you today, in connection with the presentation of the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) at Offshore Northern Seas.

Norway has been a strong supporter of JODI right from the beginning, just as we have supported the dialogue between oil producer and oil consumer nations.

JODI is, as Mr Arne Walther pointed out, a concrete outcome of the producer - consumer dialogue. For Norway, being member of International Energy Agency, and at the same time a major oil exporter, it feels particularly relevant to support activities that can enhance dialogue and trust among countries and participants in the oil market.

The purpose with JODI has from the start been to improve the quality of oil statistics and thereby improve the transparency and price stability of the oil market. This is a very important task.

Reliable and accurate oil market data are vital to oil producers and consumers, to governments and companies and for the financial markets.

Oil is the largest traded commodity worldwide, and the economy in most countries will be influenced by what happens in the international oil markets. We have observed that unexpected variations and shocks in oil prices have created major challenges for economic policy in many countries. Lack of good oil statistics has contributed to such problems.

Reliable data is essential in making sound policy decisions both on a national and international level.

For the industry, accurate forecasts and data are neccessary to achieve timely development of upstream and downstream capacity and to avoid costly and wasteful over-investment or under-investment.

JODI has a global coverage, thus also collecting data from non-OECD countries. This is especially important, now that non-OECD countries, such as India and China, account for an increasing share of oil demand growth. Traditionally there has been a lack of good and timely data from non - OECD countries, which make it difficult to estimate oil demand growth. With the assistance from JODI data from China and other non-OECD countries should become more easily accessible.

Since the beginning JODI has made significant progress. More than 90 countries are now reporting regularly, representing about 90 % of global production and consumption.

The 6 international organisations promoting JODI and the International Energy Forum secretariat deserve our recognition for the very extensive work they have undertaken during the last 5 years.

I am not disregarding that a there still are deficiencies with the JODI database and that lot of work remains to be done. The ultimate success criterion is perhaps that the JODI data makes a difference in the market and that market participants reacts to the data when publicised. We are not there yet.

The next speaker from the IEF secretariat will I think go into more details about this.

To increase its relevance it should be considered to expand JODI.

The latest G8 latest meeting called for the development of a global standard for reporting oil and energy reserves. I think this proposal is worthwhile to consider in a JODI context.

Greater transparency and data accuracy is also required about oil reserves. In several, major oil producing countries there are uncertainties about the true size of oil reserves. For long term planning, relevant and reliable information on oil reserves is essential.

JODI is very much a long term effort. As has been said, transparency does not happen overnight.

Continued success will require close interaction between international organizations and the active participation and commitment from member countries. With respect to Norway, I can ensure you that we will continue to actively support JODI.

Thank you for your attention!