24, next year," Walther said. "The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, has kindly consented to release the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) world data base to the public this afternoon," he noted. "More than 90 countries, representing 95 per cent of global supply and demand, are now submitting data on oil production, demand and stocks," Walther said. "Since we have seven of the G8 countries here today, let me say how encouraged we were by the Gleneagles Summit statement that emphasized the importance of the producer-consumer dialogue in the IEF and the Secretariat's coordination of the Joint Oil Data Initiative as means to reduce market volatility and promote energy security. That G8 emphasis has later been echoed also by other regional and international organizations. He also thanked Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar for the "Asian Energy Vision" he presented when giving the 1st IEF lecture in Riyadh in March this year. It attracted Saudi officials, foreign ambassadors, executives of oil companies and financial institutions as well as the media. --MORE 1340 Local Time 1040 GMT
