CSV00 / Cover sheet
An independent daily read on crude and product stocks.
Floating-roof shadow measurement across visible tank farms, delivered as a daily CSV per region or facility, for the days between agency releases.
Specification
- GSD
- VHR ≤0.5 m
- Cadence
- Daily
- Platform
- VHR satellite / aerial
- Spectral
- Panchromatic
- Format
- CSV time series
- Unit of series
- Region or facility
- Covers
- Visible floating-roof tanks only
Briefing noteDaily seriesCSV
01What you get
The files
- File
- 01Daily stocks index
- Format
- What's in it
- One row per day for each region or facility you subscribe to, with the day's index value and the number of tanks that had a usable measurement that day. It lands each day for the previous pass, ready to load next to the agency series in your own model.
- File
- 02Tank coverage count
- Format
CSV column- What's in it
- For every daily print, how many tanks were measured and how many were hidden by cloud or otherwise unusable. You see how much of a farm each print rests on before you weigh it.
- File
- 03Facility breakout
- Format
CSV- What's in it
- Where coverage allows, the same series per named farm, so you can look at a hub on its own instead of only the regional total.
- File
- 04Methodology note
- Format
PDF- What's in it
- How a roof shadow is turned into a fill level for each tank, and how fill levels are rolled up into a facility and a region. It gives the assumptions in plain terms so your quant can decide what to do with the series.
02Method
How it works
01You supply
Name the regions or facilities
The regions, hubs or named farms you trade around. Tell us which products matter to your book.
02We do
Tanks identified
The floating-roof tanks in each farm are found and listed. Fixed-roof and buried storage are left out.
03We do
Daily imagery, shadow measured
Each pass over a farm is checked tank by tank. The shadow the roof casts inside the tank wall gives the roof height, and that gives the fill level.
04We do
Roll up to the index
Tank fill levels are aggregated to the facility, then to the region, into one value per day.
05You get
CSV arrives
The daily series, the coverage count and the methodology note.
03Envelope
Limits
- Condition
- L1Cloud leaves gaps
- Effect on the series
- A cloudy day over a farm means no usable measurement at that site for that day. The coverage count shows it and the series leaves the gap as a gap.
- Condition
- L2Floating roofs only
- Effect on the series
- The method needs a visible floating roof. Fixed-roof tanks, underground caverns and any storage under cover are outside the index.
- Condition
- L3Sun angle sets what shows
- Effect on the series
- The shadow is only as readable as the light allows. When the sun is high or the roof is near the top of the tank, the shadow shrinks and the reading gets coarse.
- Condition
- L4Panchromatic is one band
- Effect on the series
- There is no colour to separate crude from products in the image. The index tracks fill level; product splits come from what you know about each farm.
- Condition
- L5Resolution floor
- Effect on the series
- At 0.5 m or finer a large tank spans many pixels and its shadow is readable. Small tanks and thin shadows are not.
- Condition
- L6Cadence is a target
- Effect on the series
- Daily is the target for each farm. A tasking miss or a cloudy run shows up as a gap, and there is no promise of a print at a fixed hour.
- Condition
- L7Not an audited number
- Effect on the series
- This is our own measurement method. It has no third-party audit and it makes no claim to match the agency figure.
04The job today
Why this exists
Between agency releases a desk has no independent read on stocks. The analyst estimates the draw or build from flows and runs, waits for the weekly print and learns on release day how far off the estimate was. Terminal operators publish on their own schedule.
This index adds a daily measurement from imagery for the days in between, next to the agency series, not in place of it.
05Fit
Who it's for
Fits
- Energy trading desk analysts and fundamental researchers who keep a stocks view between agency releases.
- Quant teams that want an independent series to test against past agency prints before it goes into a model.
- Anyone who can take a CSV and decide for themselves how much weight it gets.
Doesn't fit
- A forecast of the agency number. This reads tanks and never predicts a release.
- Coverage of fixed-roof, buried or cavern storage.
- A desk that needs a print at a fixed hour every day regardless of weather.
06FAQ
Questions from the desk
Q1Does this replace the agency data?
No. It is a separate daily read that sits alongside the agency series and covers the days between releases.
Q2Is it validated against the agency figures?
We make no claim either way. The methodology note explains how the index is built, and running it against past agency prints is your team's job. Send us the periods you want to test.
Q3What about fixed-roof and underground storage?
Not measured. The method needs a visible floating roof.
Q4What happens on a cloudy day?
The site gets no usable measurement that day. The coverage count shows how many tanks were seen, and the gap stays in the series.
Q5How far back does the history go?
It depends on the facility and on the imagery archive. Ask about the regions you care about before you commit.
Q6Is the index third-party audited?
No claim is made either way. It is our own measurement methodology.
Q7How does it plug into what we run?
It is a CSV. It loads into a notebook, a spreadsheet or a time-series database. There is no direct integration with a terminal or trading system.
Q8Who owns the series, and can we pass it around?
Use and redistribution terms are written into the agreement before the feed starts. The imagery behind it keeps its own licence.
Q9How is it priced?
Per region or facility and by history depth, quoted after we know what you want covered. There is no price list here.
07 Next step
Tell us the regions and facilities you trade around.
We'll come back with what coverage looks like for them.