Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union

Unit E5: Energy

L-2920 Luxembourg

Imports are recorded by country of origin, exports by country of destination; quantities are regarded as imported or exported when they have crossed the political boundaries of the country, whether customs clearance has taken place or not. The concept of the physical movement of flows applies.

The monthly imports and exports data collections cover following energy commodities:

• solid fuels (hard coal only)
• oil and petroleum products
• gas
• electricity     

For solid fuels, crude oil and NGLs, imports and exports are reported by country of ultimate origin, respectively destination, while natural gas, refinery products and feedstocks as well as electricity are reported as coming from the country of last consignment. Quantities of crude oil and petroleum products imported or exported under processing agreements (i.e. refining on account) should be included. However, transit trade, international marine and aviation bunkers are excluded from this data set.

Please note that this is different from the definition of natural gas trade in the annual gas questionnaire and from the definition in the previous monthly oil and gas questionnaire (before January 2013).

For further information, please consult the Energy Statistics Regulation (Regulation (EC) 1099/2008 on energy statistics) and the reporting instructions.

Monthly imports and exports of energy commodities cover the full spectrum of the Member States of the European Union, EFTA States, candidate countries and potential candidates, as well as most Energy Community Contracting Parties.

Energy statistics is an integral part of the European System of Statistics. Therefore, they rely on classifications and nomenclatures developed in other fields while classifications proper to the Energy statistics are fully harmonised with the classifications used in other fields of the European System of Statistics. For sector classification: NACE rev. 2 applies. Country classification: The geonom is used for classifying reporting countries and trading partners.

Classifications, nomenclatures and correspondence tables are available at the Eurostat’s RAMON metadata server.

Monthly energy data cover mainly the supply side (production, trade, stocks) and to a lesser extent the consumption side.

For further detail information on divisions, groups or class please consult the reporting instructions.

Classifications, nomenclatures and correspondence tables are available at the Eurostat’s classification server RAMON

Definitions, concepts and methodology are harmonised and

Annex A and Annex C of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics applies.

Consult also Eurostat’s classification server RAMON.

Statistical units can be business registers, units involved in exploitation, production or trade of fuels, importers / exporters and wholesale traders, etc. For detailed information on statistical units, see Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community (Official Journal of the European Communities No L 076, 30/03/1993, p. 1), Section III of 5.03.1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.

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Series cover the Member States of the European Union, EFTA-countries (Iceland and Norway), candidate countries (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Turkey) and potential candidate countries (Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/99)) as well as other Energy Community Contracting Parties (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine). The EU and Eurozone aggregates are also shown.

The monthly energy data are available on-line from January 2008 onwards [with only some exceptions per individual reporting country and questionnaire]. Historical monthly time-series are archived or can be found in older Eurostat publications [paper publications and CDs].

Not applicable.

Basic data on imports/exports are expressed in fuel specific units e.g. solid and liquid fuels in thousand tonnes, electricity in kilowatt-hours, heat and gases in terajoules (TJ). Basic energy quantities data are converted to energy units, i.e. in terajoules and tonnes of oil equivalent to allow the addition of different nature fuel types.

Units are defined in Annex C of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics.

All figures reported are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Monthly imports and exports refer to the calendar month.

Data is compiled under the standard collection cycles of the "Energy Statistics Unit” according to Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics (and its amendments). This legal text sets in its Annex C the framework for the production, transmission, evaluation and dissemination of monthly energy statistics.

Harmonised questionnaires (joint Eurostat/IEA) are used for oil and gas.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Confidential data are not shown. The most common approach is to present only aggregation of the confidential data point with the non-confidential data that is the nearest point in the energy balance.

Usually around the 12^th of each month.

No particular provisions.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Data are disseminated on monthly basis.

Not applicable.

Statistics explained and selected statistical info in the Energy Dedicated Section.

Data on imports and exports are published in Eurobase

Not applicable.

The Energy dedicated section in Eurostat website contents methodological information and publications.

Several articles in the Statistics Explained section exist for energy domain.

The methodology is described in the Energy Statistics Manual.

The Energy dedicated section in Eurostat website has additional methodological information.

Please consult general quality documentation on energy statistics: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/methodology

This data are part of the energy statistics and are integrated in the Quality Reporting cycle that takes place every five years. Quality reports are available based on Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics.

Data are subject to several validation checks, among which the time series checks, the consistency & completeness checks, and others corresponding to levels 0-3 of the ESS.VIP on validation. Validation on levels 4-5 is not consistently performed.

If there are any doubts as regards data quality, Eurostat contacts the Member State to provide necessary justifications or corrections.

For example:

• Countries that do not produce primary energy fuels cannot export these fuels (for crude oil or primary coals)
• Countries cannot import oil or primary coals from countries that do not produce these fuels.
• The category Not elsewhere specified is closely monitored.

Monthly imports and exports statistics provide the European Commission with harmonised, reliable and relevant statistical information needed to define, implement, monitor and evaluate Commission policies in the energy sector, in particular:

Provide the Commission with flash estimates on the development of energy dependence

• Help the Commission to take appropriate measures to avoid the reliance on foreign imports of energy
• Provide first alerts regards the security of energy supply and help to protect against disruptions of gas and oil supplies
• Provide the Commission with early trends regards the contribution of energy products to trade

It also provides the other EU institutions, national administrations, enterprises, professional associations and EU citizens with high quality statistical services and products in the field of energy trade.

Further information is available at the Eurostat dedicated Statistics explained section

Not available.

Not available.

The accuracy of monthly energy data is done by assessing the M-2 / M-3 data against the annual data, assuming that the annual data are more accurate than the monthly. This monthly versus annual assessment, takes into account not only the differences observed between the cumulated monthly data and the corresponding annual data, but also compares the trends / growth rates between them.

Moreover, data is submitted on the basis of monthly questionnaires employing an internationally agreed methodology (gas and oil questionnaires). Eurostat receives disaggregated data which are used to countercheck the results and to ensure consistency with the total amount of energy consumption. The accuracy of the basic data depends on the quality of the national statistical systems and may vary from country to country (e.g. in several countries and for most energy commodities data provision by the companies is required by law).

However, emerging liberalisation process in some countries may to some extent negatively affect accuracy in some cases. From time to time detailed surveys targeted to single sub-items are carried out to improve the methodology.

Mirror exercises: Eurostat is performing regular analysis on the comparison between the intra-European flows as reported by the Member States and other reporting countries. This allows to determine if the exports reported by country A with destination country B are similar to the imports reported by country B from country A.

Not available.

Not available.

Monthly oil and petroleum products and natural gas statistics are provided 55 days following the reported month, all other monthly data are provide within three months after the end of the reference month as stipulated in Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics.

Not available.

Fully comparable data due to the use of the joint questionnaires. Eurostat verifies to the extent possible if the reported data respect the prescribed methodology. The underlying data collection methods are however the responsibility of the Member States. The methodology is harmonised for all EU and OECD countries.

Comparability over time is ensured with a solid methodology harmonised on European and international level.

Not available.

Data are checked in detail for internal consistency/coherence in full cooperation with the countries concerned.

Not available.

There is no legally binding data revision policy in place.

Monthly questionnaires provide data on the last reference month and revisions for the months before. Revisions of entire time series can be made by Member States due to their national specific circumstances. These revisions are then reflected in the monthly questionnaires and are also implemented by Eurostat in due time.

Data are updated in case an error would be identified, if a Member State transmits more up-to-date figures or if provisional data are modified into definitive ones.

Data are obtained from the National Administrations competent for energy statistics. Depending on the reporting country and the specific monthly process, the data providers can be:

• National Statistical Institutes
• Ministries
• Energy Agencies
• Professional Associations

Questionnaires in standardized electronic format are collected from the national authorities via online data transmission. Data files have to be transmitted by the Member States to Eurostat via the Single Entry Point (SEP) following the implementing procedures of eDAMIS (electronic Data files Administration and Management Information System).

Monthly.

Energy statistics - imports (nrg_12m)

Energy statistics - exports (nrg_13m)

Data are in principle taken from declarations of importers and exporters, although these may not be identical with customs data. Foreign trade statistics are also used for imports and exports data. Customs data of imports and exports are complemented with data submitted by enterprises.

In some countries data are collected through specific surveys (e.g. business Register units where importers / exporters are included). National competent authorities also collect the data by using surveys, administrative data, association's data, customs data and also by modelling including interpolation and extrapolation. Even estimates are occasionally submitted if real data is not available. The mixture of sources differs between countries.

Monthly energy data are subject to several validation checks, among which the time series checks, the consistency & completeness checks, plausibility checks etc.

If there are any doubts as regards data quality, Eurostat contacts the Member State to provide necessary justifications or corrections.

Member States report to Eurostat basic data in the relevant units (see point 4). Country aggregations, such as the EU aggregate, are formed by the aggregation of data from individual countries.

No adjustments of data are performed in a systematic way.

Not applicable.