Commodity Chemicals Data Provider: Emissions, Inventories, Volumes and Properties · Head-to-head
NIST Chemistry WebBook vs EIA — Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data
Which commodity chemicals data provider: emissions, inventories, volumes and properties data fits your job: NIST Chemistry WebBook, or EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
NIST Chemistry WebBook
EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data
Where the fields line up
No shared field names. These two answer different questions.
| Field | NIST Chemistry WebBook | EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data |
|---|---|---|
Quantity | Property symbol or name in the species data table: formation and combustion enthalpies, heat capacities, phase-change temperatures, critical constants. | not in this set |
Value | Evaluated numeric value with its experimental uncertainty where one exists - the uncertainty is part of the datum, not an appendix to it. | not in this set |
Units | Unit of the reported value, SI or calorie-based depending on how the record was pulled; kJ/mol for energies, K for temperatures, bar for pressures. | not in this set |
Method | How the number was produced: AVG marks a NIST-evaluated average of selected literature values, named codes such as Cm mark a specific experiment type like flame calorimetry. | not in this set |
Reference | Bibliographic citation of the paper behind a measured value, or blank on NIST-evaluated averages where the evaluation itself is the source. | not in this set |
Comment | Provenance note attached to the row - how many values entered an average, which ones were rejected, derived-value calculations. | not in this set |
Formula | Chemical formula of the species in Hill notation. | not in this set |
Molecular weight | Computed molecular weight of the species in g/mol. | not in this set |
CAS Registry Number | CAS identifier serving as the canonical lookup key for a species. | not in this set |
IUPAC Standard InChI / InChIKey | Standard InChI string plus hashed InChIKey giving unambiguous structural identity for joins against any modern chemistry database. | not in this set |
Sourcekey | not in this set | EIA series identifier - the join-friendly key, MNFRP-prefixed, that separates the United States total (MNFRPUS2) from each PADD and refining-district series. |
Date | not in this set | Reporting period for the row. Annual rows carry end-of-period dates; monthly rows carry the month, so a year of monthly observations stacks twelve rows where the annual view carries one. |
Coverage, side by side
| NIST Chemistry WebBook | EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | Not applicable — chemistry holds everywhere; records are organized by species, not by place | United States, PADDs 1–5 plus refining districts and sub-districts such as Texas Inland and La. Gulf Coast |
| Temporal | Continuously maintained compilation stating a last data update of 2025; individual values cite literature spanning decades | US annual series 1983–2025; regional series generally 1993–2025, some shorter or discontinued |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| NIST Chemistry WebBook | EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | NIST — Standard Reference Data Program (Standard Reference Database SRD 69) | U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), built on the Petroleum Supply Monthly and refinery surveys |
| Subject lens | Physical constants: gas- and condensed-phase thermochemistry, phase-change data, ion energetics, spectra and fluid properties | Production volumes: refinery and blender net output of naphtha destined for petrochemical feedstock use |
| Geographic coverage | Not applicable — chemistry holds everywhere; records are organized by species, not by place | United States, PADDs 1–5 plus refining districts and sub-districts such as Texas Inland and La. Gulf Coast |
| Temporal coverage | Continuously maintained compilation stating a last data update of 2025; individual values cite literature spanning decades | US annual series 1983–2025; regional series generally 1993–2025, some shorter or discontinued |
| Detail level | One row per quantity/method/reference combination within each species record; 74 fluids with full thermophysical surfaces | Monthly and annual national and regional totals per product; no facility-level detail |
| Field dictionary | Ten documented fields: Quantity, Value, Units, Method, Reference, Comment, Formula, Molecular weight, CAS Registry Number, InChIKey | Six documented fields: Sourcekey, Date, U.S. net production value, PADD/district production columns, Product and Area dimensions |
| Scale | Over 7,000 compound thermochemistry records, over 8,000 reactions, 16,000+ IR and 33,000+ mass spectra, 27,000+ GC records, 16,000+ ion-energetics records | Roughly 16 series per product-area layout, single-product histories of up to 43 years in monthly and annual views |
| Best for | Process design, safety analysis and simulation inputs that need defensible constants per molecule | Feedstock availability, cracker utilization and margin work that needs volumes per region and period |
What each does better
the NIST Chemistry WebBook
It certifies the molecule. Every value arrives with an uncertainty and a lineage: methanol's ΔcH°gas of −763.68 ± 0.20 kJ/mol cites Rossini's 1932 flame calorimetry, its boiling point of 337.8 ± 0.3 K averages 154 of 171 reported determinations, and its critical point lands at 513 ± 1 K and 81 ± 1 bar. Nothing in the EIA ledger characterizes a substance — see process modeling contexts for why that distinction decides simulation work. Breadth no production series can match. Over 7,000 compounds of thermochemistry, more than 8,000 reactions, 16,000+ IR and 33,000+ mass spectra, 27,000+ GC records, 16,000+ ion-energetics entries and thermophysical surfaces for 74 fluids including density, Cp/Cv, enthalpy, entropy, viscosity and thermal conductivity. Identity done properly. Synonyms, isotopologues, 2-D Mol files and computed 3-D SD files hang off each species page, keyed by CAS number and InChIKey so downstream joins stay clean.
EIA — Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data
Regional anatomy. The split runs past the five PADDs into refining districts — PADD 3 alone breaks into Texas Inland, Texas Gulf Coast, Louisiana Gulf Coast and North Louisiana-Arkansas, with the Midwest carrying Indiana-Illinois-Kentucky, Minnesota-Wisconsin-Dakotas and Oklahoma-Kansas-Missouri — so a Gulf Coast cracker analysis can be drawn at the district grain (PADD 2 ran about 13 thousand barrels per day in 2024). A real time axis. Annual series back to 1983 with monthly variants alongside give trend, seasonality and cycle in one request, where the WebBook offers constants rather than trajectories.
Where they're equivalent
Less than their shared industry suggests, but the overlap is real. Both are first-party publications maintained by US federal science and statistics agencies, both carry field dictionaries verified during research, and both put a stable identifier at the head of every row — CAS 67-56-1 on one side, MNFRPUS2 on the other. Both are curated rather than crowd-sourced: named compilers and cited references on the NIST side, Petroleum Supply Monthly sourcing and scheduled releases on the EIA side. Neither descends below its chosen grain — NIST stops at the species-measurement row, EIA at national and district totals, so neither resolves to a facility, a lot or a shipment. For other registry-depth options on the chemicals side, compare EPA ChemView or EPA TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit — they answer different questions about the same industry. Take the NIST Chemistry WebBook if your question names a molecule. Process engineers sizing a separation, safety analysts running consequence models, developers building property lookups behind a chemistry product, researchers needing defensible enthalpies — anything answered by a constant. Accept its frame: placeless, snapshot-valued, and organized around species rather than time. Take EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data if your question names a volume. Feedstock buyers tracking naphtha availability, analysts modeling cracker utilization and margins by PADD, economists charting four decades of supply — anything answered by a time series. Accept its frame: US-only, aggregated to district level, single-product scope on this page. Where the brief needs both a constant and a curve, the honest answer is both.
Sample both, pick by fit. See NIST Chemistry WebBook · See EIA Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data
Or take both in one feed
Yes — as complements in one process-economics brief rather than substitutes. EIA supplies the denominator: how much naphtha the refining system makes available for petrochemical use, where and when, from 1983 to now. NIST supplies the physics of what happens to it downstream: cracking enthalpies, fluid property surfaces, reaction thermochemistry for over 8,000 reactions. Three alignments decide whether the pairing works. First, identity: CAS Registry Number and InChIKey join to nothing on the EIA side, so the merge stays analytical rather than row-level. Second, units: kJ-per-mole quantities do not divide into thousand-barrel flows without a yield assumption doing the conversion. Third, time: all trajectory questions live on the EIA side, since NIST publishes current best values rather than a history. Browse the wider slice in the commodity chemicals data hub. Delivered daily, weekly, or hourly — your call. Or take both in one feed.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Fair questions
Is EIA — Petrochemical Feedstock & Refinery Olefin Production Data better than the NIST Chemistry WebBook?
Better at different jobs. NIST answers what a molecule does: ΔfH°gas for methanol at −205 ± 10 kJ/mol (average of 9 values), Tboil at 337.8 ± 0.3 K averaged across 154 of 171 reported values, critical points, ionization energies and spectra keyed to CAS 67-56-1. EIA answers how much feedstock moved: US refinery and blender net production of naphtha for petrochemical feedstock use ran 126 thousand barrels per day in 2022 and 142 in 2025, split across PADDs 1–5 and their refining districts. Both carry verified field dictionaries and score 9/10 (NIST) versus 8/10 (EIA). Sample both, pick by fit.
Do the two datasets cover the same ground?
Only at the industry line. Both sit in the Commodity Chemicals slice and both put a measured number against a labeled entity, but their entities never meet. NIST's rows are species–property pairs: one methanol record carries quantity, value, units, method, reference and comment columns per measurement. EIA's rows are region–period pairs: a Sourcekey such as MNFRPUS2 or MNFRPP32 with a date and a production value in thousand barrels or thousand barrels per day. No field on either side joins to the other without a modeling layer between them.
Which dataset reaches further back?
EIA on calendar depth, NIST on scientific depth. The EIA U.S. series runs 1983–2025 annually with regional series generally from 1993, monthly variants alongside, so a forty-year feedstock trajectory falls out of a single request. NIST compiles measurements whose underlying literature reaches back over a century — its methanol combustion entry cites Rossini, 1932 flame calorimetry — but the compilation itself describes current best values rather than a time series. Use EIA to plot change, NIST to pin constants.
Which should an olefins market study sample first?
Start with EIA if the question has a volume sign: PADD 3 Gulf Coast production against Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana Gulf Coast sub-districts is where cracker economics live, and the monthly view shows the 2022-to-2025 swing from 126 to 142 thousand barrels per day. Add NIST when the study turns to yields and process design — steam-cracking enthalpies, fluid density and viscosity surfaces for 74 fluids, reaction thermochemistry for over 8,000 reactions. Both arrive normalized to their documented field dictionaries.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes — alone or merged into one process-economics brief, delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Each side ships normalized to its documented dictionary (ten fields captured on the NIST data tables, six on the EIA series pages) with sample rows for inspection before anything ships. Expect the merge to stay analytical: CAS numbers do not join to EIA Sourcekeys, and a per-species constant carries no barrel dimension. Feed the two into one model rather than one table. Or take both in one feed.