Commodity traders can get a real-time view of their most important assets with a new interactive data and mapping tool on Thomson Reuters Eikon., its trader desktop.
Want to see what’s happening in the Houston Ship Channel? Click on Energyand see the refineries and ships around Houston.
Click on a refinery for information on ownership, production capacity and current status/spare capacity. The map also shows all the tankers in the area, with regular updates on their movements and direction from ship transponders whose signals are picked up by on-shore monitors. Movements of ships further at sea are updated from satellite information about seven times a day. Ship colors indicate size, such as very large crude carriers, and the map shows whether they are full or empty. Click on a symbol to see the ship’s name and other information.
Called simply enough, Interactive Map, the tool has been in development for over a year.
Weather? Overlay local or global weather conditions and see ships that could be in danger so you can prepare alternate routes for them send a substitute cargo from a different direction to arrive after the storm.
Not working in Houston? Type in Vancouver for information there, or Shanghai. Search for coal mines, nuclear plants, or gas powered generators. Summary tables will show information by region.
Looking for a Maersk tanker? The map showed a very large crude carrier (VLCC) heading into the Suez Canal. Click on it to show its track and where the ship has been in the last 48 or 64 hours.
The mapping sits on top of a huge database of energy and commodity information so customers can access the data and see the results in a visual map at any scale they want.
“Analysts will look at broad production while traders will look at events and how they impact supply chains so they can determine how to change their trading strategy and ways to handle physical risk,” said Shaun Sibley, managing director, commodities & energy at Thomson Reuters. “Their customers want to understand the potential impact of a hurricane on the East coast or earthquakes hitting mines in Chile.”
When Sandy was moving toward the U.S. coast, the maps were incredible, Sibley added. The maps showed which refineries could be hit by the storm. They also shows surface temperatures and wind speeds to help utilities predict power consumption and production. They can also show flooding potential for six to 24 hours.
Images are from Thomson Reuters Eikon
By Tom Groenfeldt, EPM Contributor, from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2012/11/20/mapping-the-worlds-energy-on-the-move/
I write about finance and technology, which can range from supercomputers to iPhones and iPads, which have made inroads into enterprise computing in the last year. It’s a fast-moving world with just a bit of hype, so figuring out what’s real is a challenge, and spotting emerging trends is a feat that often comes from listening and deciphering themes amidst the chatter. For a change of pace I turn to photography — I like shooting on the streets of New York, and when I am home in Wisconsin, I turn to our dogs for inspiration, as you can see on Facebook. Tom writes for Banking Technologies in London, and for Forbes, at blogs.forbes.com/tomgroenfeldt. See Tom’s articles on EPM Channel here.