Online Energy Resources
Thomson Dialog
Matthew Ansbro
& Alban Smith
October 2005
Agenda
• Introduction – Thomson Dialog
• Energy Industry content
• Accessing information
– Information Professionals
– End-users
• Summary
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Thomson Corporation & Thomson Dialog
Thomson
Corporation
Legal & Regulatory
Scientific & Healthcare
Financial
Learning
•NewsEdge
•Thomson Dialog
•First Call
•NETg
•Westlaw
•Derwent
•Investext
•Prometric
•Trademarkscan
•SciSearch
•Disclosure
•Gale Group
•Biosis
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Thomson Dialog
• Largest aggregator of on-line information
– 80% not available free on the internet
– Thomson, Elsevier, Tulsa, Georef, CSA etc
• Global organisation – 32 countries
• Working with the majority of major energy companies
– Information specialists
– End-users – geoscientists, engineers etc
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Needs
Issues
• Information must be
• No library or searches may take time
– comprehensive
– easy to retrieve
– timely
• Breakdown in communication
• Key information may be missing
• Numerous sources can mean
numerous interfaces
• Functionality and indexing will vary
across end-user tools
• Difficult to locate relevant information
in journals
• Not enough support – training,
helpdesk etc
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Energy Industry Content
R&D
PATENTS
Oil & Gas
Company
MARKET
SURVEY
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CURRENT
AWARENESS
Energy Science and Technology
Petroleum Abstracts
Georef
Fluidex
Geobase
…
Derwent
EPO
WIPO
USPTO
Oil & Gas
Company
Datamonitor
Freedonia
F&S…
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NewsRoom
PROMT
Gale Trade & Industry
Tablebase
…
R&D/E&P sources
Key Databases
• Petroleum Abstracts (TULSA)
– Produced by University of Tulsa. A&I literature covering E&P.
1965-present
• GeoRef
– Produced by AGI. Worldwide literature on geology & geophysics.
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Content - Georef – Summary
GeoRef (American Geological Institute)
• 1966 to present
• covers the geoscience literature of the world.
• the most comprehensive database in the geosciences
• contains over 2.6 million references to geoscience journal
articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses
• growing by more than 80,000 references a year (85,000 in
2004).
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Content - Petroleum Abstracts – Summary
Petroleum Abstracts
• is the world's leading source of information about published
knowledge related to oil and gas exploration, production,
transportation and storage.
• Every week, PA's petroleum engineers and geoscientists select,
abstract and index material relevant to the upstream sector of the
petroleum industry.
• This material comes from 300 journals and more than 200
conference proceedings, plus patent gazettes and full-text
patents, government documents and reports, dissertations,
books, maps and many other sources.
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Benefits - Petroleum Abstracts & Georef
• Helps eliminate costly mistakes caused by failure to stay up-todate with current practices and technology
• Ensures a comprehensive search – 3 million references to E&P
related literature and patents, in English from in 28 languages
• Improves efficiency though access to vital scientific and
technical knowledge for all professionals in an organization
• Enables precise retrieval of relevant information through use of
industry-specific index terms
• Dramatically reduces time required to find scientific and
technical information
• Alerts users to new developments in their field
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GeoRef & Petroleum Abstracts – Source comparison
TITLE
NUMBER OF DOCUMENTS
GeoRef
AAAPG Explorer
AAAPG Bulletin
Canadian Petroleum Geology
Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae
Engineering Geology
European Association of Exploration Geophysicists
Geomorphology
Noroil
Ocean Industry
Offshore Engineer
Oil and Gas Investor
Oil and Gas Journal
Petroleum Economist
Tectonophysics
Upstream
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847
29245
0
2211
2381
761
1221
25
77
35
0
4975
16
9649
0
Petroleum
Abstracts (since
1979)
232
2520
662
491
3
0
0
391
1073
1081
0
8525
370
2702
0
R&D/E&P sources
• Ei EnCompass Lit
– Used to be owned by API. Literature related to the petroleum,
petrochemical, natural gas & energy related industries.
• Ei EnCompass Pat
– Used to be owned by API. Comprehensive coverage of patents
related to the petroleum, petrochemicals, natural gas, and energy
industries. Can MAP through to Derwent patents in WPI.
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R&D Sources
Secondary files
• Patents files – cover all novel inventions and methods. Vast majority
unavailable elsewhere.
• GeoBase - research literature in physical & human geography, earth &
environmental sciences
• Geoarchive - Covering geoscience, hydroscience & environmental science
• Energy Science & Technology - Provided by US Dept of Energy, covers all
aspects of basic and applied science as they relate to energy
• Fluidex - Global literature in the use, control & and management of fluids for
engineering applications
• NTIS - Summaries of government sponsored research development &
engineering
• Ei Compendex - World’s foremost Engineering and Technology database
• Chemical Abstracts - Worldwide literature of chemistry and its applications
• Inspec – Key database covering electronics, physics and computing
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Specific industry sources
•Dialog NewsRoom (files 989-996)
•WORLD OIL
•JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
• OIL AND GAS JOURNAL
• PETROLEUM ENGINEER INTERNATIONAL
•SPE PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
• POWER ENGINEERING
•OCEAN INDUSTRY
•PETROLE ET TECHNIQUES
• SEKIYU GIJUTSU KYOKAISHI
•THE LOG ANALYST
• WELL TESTING
• WORLD PUMPS
…
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Specific Business Sources
• McGraw-Hill Publications (file 624)
•Includes Gas Daily, EU Energy, Platt’s Oilgram, Platt’s Petrochemical
Report…..
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•Dialog NewsRoom (files 989-996)
•PETROLEUM ECONOMIST
•ENERGY ALERT
•OIL DAILY
• OIL WEEK
•OFFSHORE
• PR NEWSWIRE
• ABERDEEN PRESS & JOURNAL (UK)
• NORTH SEA LETTER
• OCEAN INDUSTRY
• BUSINESS WIRE
•AFRICA NEWS SERVICE
• ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE
• CONTROL AND INSTRUMENTATION
• ENERGY REPORT
• EUROPEAN POWER NEWS
• IMPROVED RECOVERY WEEK
…
Accessing the information
•Information Professionals
•End-Users
Information Professionals – current situation
• Many web options
– command language
– guided search
– customised search forms
• Post-processing
– format reports instantly
– brand reports
– alerts to end-users in report format
• Professional development
– share challenges & experience
– ROI
– promoting the information centre
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End Users - Issues v Solutions
• Key information may be missing
• Breadth and depth of content
• Numerous sources can mean
numerous interfaces
• One interface designed to suit client
needs
• Functionality and indexing will vary
across end-user tools
• Powerful search functionality behind
simple interface
• Locating relevant information in
journals
• E-Links to full text of subscribed
journals
• Not enough support – training,
helpdesk etc
• Bespoke training, 24 hour helpdesk,
Alerts Bureau etc
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Summary
• Information should be
– Comprehensive
– Easy to retrieve
– Timely
• Objective to keep in mind….
“Help people make better decisions more quickly.”
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