How to Use This Report

Introduction

The Weekly Energy Perspective was started in 2001 to keep executives at Apache Corporation abreast of developments in the energy industry that could impact Apache’s business activities.  The report has evolved into a four-page document with a consistent format to allow the reader to quickly assess the prior week’s events.  This document will describe how the report is laid out and what the reader should consider as he or she reads the report each week.  In addition, this document will provide a general background on the energy industry for new readers.

The Weekly Energy Perspective is segmented into three pages: (1) a summary, (2) an in-depth review of an industry topic and (3) industry statistics.  The first page presents a high-level summary of significant issues of the prior week.  The second page covers a relevant topic in more detail than can be covered elsewhere in the report.  The topic changes every week so that many important industry issues may be covered over the course of a year.  The third page displays plots of 18 different industry statistics that may be quickly viewed and compared.

This report covers issues that are important to Apache.  For example, events in some countries are not covered because Apache does not have operations there.  However, even though Apache does not have operations in Saudi Arabia, events in Saudi Arabia are covered because of their significance to the industry in general.

The pages that follow provide background information and explanations of why certain issues are covered in the report.  The reason some events or facts are included might not be obvious at first blush.  However, over time, attention to these details will help the reader follow developing trends.

Because the report is designed for people who work in the industry, some of the terms and abbreviations might be unfamiliar to the general public.  Industry terminology will continue to be used in this report to convey as much information to Apache executives as quickly as possible.  Please refer to the glossary for definitions of unfamiliar terms.

The information in this document is meant to provide a quick overview of the Weekly Energy Perspective.  More information may be found in the Energy 101 section and the various topic reports on the Apache Web site.  As you read the report, patterns will emerge over time and the complex factors affecting the energy industry will become more apparent.