Merrill Lynch Selects HPDI as Oil and Gas Data Provider

HPDI LLC, a supplier of historical oil and gas data and decision support tools for the energy industry, has been selected by Merrill Lynch to provide its institutional investors with information and research services. As part of a new service called Merrill Open Minds, Merrill Lynch will offer information from industry-specific research companies to assist trading clients in making investment decisions. Of the seven research entities initially chosen to participate by Merrill Lynch, HPDI is the sole provider of energy information.

“For more than a decade, oil and gas companies have relied on HPDI to provide them with the historical information they need to plan their engineering, marketing, and exploration strategies,” said Corey Rhoden, HPDI chief operating officer. “This same information proves extremely valuable to financial institutions as they evaluate potential investments in the energy sector.”

HPDI aggregates historical oil and gas production data, drilling permits, prices, transportation, refinery and gas plant information. HPDI makes this information accessible through Internet-based applications that enable clients to query the data and display results in a variety of graphical and tabular formats, including GIS maps, charts, and tables. Clients can use HPDI tools to extrapolate data sets to predict future trends, or they can download the data to other analysis applications.

“We are very pleased that HPDI is a part of Merrill Open Minds. HPDI offers Merrill Lynch institutional investor clients the depth of coverage and ease of use to support a sophisticated analysis of oil and gas production trends,” said John Svolos, head of Sales and Marketing of Merrill Open Minds.

The full suite of HPDI products and services will be available to Merrill Lynch clients. All of the HPDI research and analysis tools come with online tutorials designed to allow users to quickly extract and display oil and gas data relating to specific operators, producing formations, activity dates, and geographic areas. HPDI offers its customers access to six primary databases:

• U.S. Historical Production includes oil and gas production statistics from producing states dating back to the 1950s. This database is continually updated with new state reports.
• Drilling Permit Database, provided by RigData, includes permit numbers, well and operator information, granted dates and actual images of the permits and plats. This database can be cross-referenced with the U.S. Historical Production data for complex queries with results spotted on a map.
• Pricing Data contains oil and gas marketing data such as purchaser, producer, and facility information, as well as price and post information.
• Transporter Database includes oil and gas transporting details such as to/from information, volumes, inventory, and report dates.
• Refinery and Gas Plant Databases contain receipt and delivery information as well as activity information.