As 2015 comes to a close, I would like to take a few moments to reflect on the past year as it pertains to MAPSearch. As a company, we have made some tremendous strides in spite of difficult market conditions. To elaborate on this, let’s take a look at our two primary markets:

Petroleum

2015 reminds us that what goes up, must come down, and can stay down for a long time. I’m referring of course to the oil markets. After years of crude trading at or near record-high prices, 2015 was our first full calendar year with oil at unbelievably low prices.

The fallout from this has been dramatic in terms of industry employment and capital investment. Even those of us in the relatively narrow focus of data vending have felt the effects. However, rather than allowing this environment to dissuade us from devoting resources to petroleum, MAPSearch recognized that our clientele will still need data – they will just be more diligent about how and from whom they will acquire it. With that in mind, we set out to improve and expand our data offerings. The most notable of these efforts has resulted in something that our customers have desired for years: well data. That’s right, 2015 marks the year that MAPSearch has offered well location data to complement our midstream datasets. And our hope is that this is just the first step in a series of offerings to upstream-minded organizations.

Electric Power

Industry developments in the electric power sector were no less notable in 2015 with the EPA issuing its long-awaited Clean Power Plan.  As expected, the emissions targets outlined in the plan will further drive power producers away from coal as the primary fuel powering North America. While renewables continue to proliferate, it seems likely that natural gas will be the big winner for the foreseeable future.

All these changes have kept MAPSearch’s research and GIS operations team extremely busy. Solar and wind farms are popping up all over the place while coal plants are being retired or converted to gas. Of course, as the sources of electric power have become more geographically distributed, the infrastructure has had to adapt. That means that our teams have added and updated tens of thousands of miles of transmission lines across the continent.

Finally, in the spirit of change, MAPSearch had one additional major occurrence in 2015, and that is the redevelopment of our website, mapsearch.com. This one is particularly dear to me as it was an initiative that I undertook a long time ago and I’m immensely grateful to the people who helped make it happen.

With that, it is time to close the book on 2015 and prepare for an even greater 2016. On behalf of everyone at MAPSearch, Happy New Year!

-R