Commentary, 1/2, 2004

Oil and Gas Econ 101
The oil and gas industry, like any other industry, is at the mercy of the marketplace. And markets are typically reactive. That is to say, all the people who make up the market tend to collectively react to various stimuli. We most often track these reactions with line charts, which provide the sensation of being up-to-the-minute when it comes to market trends (especially when they’re updated every 15 minutes on the Web). It’s like strapping a lie detector to the market and following the jumping, jagged line to see just how the market’s reacting to current events. Bar charts can be interesting for comparison and pie charts are great for expressing parts of a whole, but line charts, often accompanied by negative or positive percentages, are what it takes to appease investors.