Oil companies use BI to adjust prices

Crude oil prices, gasoline at the pump and oil company profits are at all-time highs due to a wide range of economic and market forces. And it is those forces, or the data behind them, that are constantly being analyzed by the oil companies so that they can take advantage of the trends.

So it's the IT systems--the sophisticated business intelligence operations--that are crucial to these companies. David Knapp, a senior editor at the Energy Intelligence Group, said that without good business intelligence, oil companies risk their livelihoods.

Gary Lensing, VP and CIO for global exploration and production at Hess Corp., said, "Data drives what we do, always quantifying where that value is." At Exxon, officials said, the company even wants its geophysicists to know Fortran, C and Java so they can code their own, quick analysis.

For more on oil company BI:
- check out this CIO.com article