Blind Alleys

Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
-- Plutarch

Years ago a customer came to me with a simple request. He wanted the technical specifications of the various types of crude oil … Arabian Light, West Texas Intermediate, the lot. “No problem,” I said, and went to the shelf which housed the EIG Crude Oil Market Handbook (http://www.energyintel.com/DataHomePage.asp?publication_id=103&ss=e). I had fielded similar questions dozens of times before and knew the answer. In this case, unfortunately, it was the wrong answer.

My customer said, “No, I need more detail than that.”

Then I asked him the question I should have asked before … “What are you going to use the information for?”

He told me that he wanted independent detailed assays of a broad range of crude which he could then compare to values R&D had compiled over the years and placed in a database. They were going to use the data in a research project and wanted to validate the data before beginning the project.

And so began the process of going down blind alleys to see what was there. How many blind alleys were involved I cannot say. I lost count after about 372. But this was a good customer. I was determined to go the extra two or three miles needed to find information he could use.

I finally found the right blind alley … and in that alley, I discovered …

A Catalogue of Crude Oil and Oil Product Properties

The 546 page report was funded by the U.S. Minerals Management Service and Environment Canada. Its purpose was to provide a fingerprint of every conceivable type of crude that might become the subject of an oil spill cleanup. Consequently, the properties of each crude were examined in great detail and are reported in this document.

My customer was very pleased with the results. And the results came about by asking the right question, and then going down blind alleys to see what was there.

You can view the entire report at …

www.mms.gov/tarprojects/120/120BC.PDF