Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union

Unit E5: Energy

European Commission - Eurostat

Unit ESTAT.E.5 - Energy

L-2920 Luxembourg

The monthly oil stocks collection covers the supply of crude oil and petroleum products to the Community. It covers stocks in the following locations: refinery tanks, bulk terminals, pipeline tankage, barges and intercostal tankers (when port of departure and destination are in the same country), tankers in a port of a member country (if their cargo is to be discharged at the port), inland ship bunkers. Exclude military stocks, stocks held in pipelines, in rail tanks cars, in truck tanks cars, in sea-going ships' bunkers, in service stations, in retail stores and in tankers at sea.

Two main types of stockholding obligations are existing:

• Emergency stocks, where all Member States are obliged to keep a certain volume of crude oil and petroleum products, based on the annual level of net imports or the annual level of consumption (specifically for producers).
• Specific stocks, where Member States may undertake a commitment to maintain a certain volume of petroleum products, owned by the Government or the Central Stockholding Entity.

The monthly oil stocks data collection covers all Member States of the European Union, from 2013 onwards.

The Eurostat database presents the monthly oil stocks data in 3 multi-dimensional tables:

• Stock levels
• Stocks held for other countries and stocks held abroad
• Emergency stocks in days equivalent

Energy statistics is an integral part of the European system of statistics. Therefore, they heavily 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.

The classification of the economic activities both in carrying out the surveys and in presenting the results (Energy Balance Sheets) is in accordance to NACE Rev.2

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

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.

Annex C of the Regulation on energy statistics (ESR) covers the so-called M-2 data collection, submitted to Eurostat 55 days after the reference month for the energy commodities oil and petroleum products.

The Directive 2009/119/EC imposes on Member States the obligation to maintain a minimum level of emergency oil stocks within the Community and to report commercial stocks.

The Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2018/1581 of 19 October 2018 is amending Directive 2009/119/EC as regards the methods for calculating stockholding obligations. The amendment will be applied from reference period January 2020, until that period calculation method laid down in Directive 2009/119/EC will be applied.

For more details please see ESR, Directive 2009/119/EC and Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2018/1581

Definitions are available at the Eurostat’s classification server RAMON

Statistical unit may vary in energy statistics (explicitly named in the dedicated metadata sheets for each data collection). A statistical unit in energy statistics can be enterprises, local units, establishment or household.

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 15.03.1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.

Reporting unit covers that the "Emergency Stocks (Total) held on national territory in accordance with the EU Directive" will be determined.

Not available

Monthly data series cover the EU Member States.

From 2013 onwards.

Not Applicable.

The “Stock levels” and the “Stocks held for other countries and stocks held abroad” tables present the data in thousand tonnes.

The “Emergency stocks in days equivalent” table displays the Daily net imports or inland consumption for compliance (calculated) and the Minimum stock level for compliance (calculated) in thousand tonnes.

The “Emergency stocks in days equivalent” table displays the Emergency Stocks held by the MS in accordance with the EU Directive with numbers, in days equivalent. The 2 methods applied in the calculation are also displayed with numbers.

Method for calculation of obligation (calculated)

The minimum stockholding obligation is calculated on the basis of either the average daily net imports or the average daily inland consumption of the previous calendar year, as outlined in Annexes I and II of the Directive 2009/119/EC. For the period from 1 January to 31 March of each calendar year, not the last year but one before the calendar year is used. The method based on the average daily net imports has 3 alternative calculations for the deduction of the naphtha yield, correcting the net imports of primary products for the naphtha content. Method 1 is retained if the actual yield is below 7%. Otherwise, the method (Method 2 or 3) giving the lowest daily net imports is retained.The applied methods are presented with numbers from 1 to 4.

• 1 - Obligation determined based on the net imports, in the calculation 4% default value is applied for the naphtha yield
• 2 - Obligation determined based on the net imports, in the calculation the net actual naphtha consumption is used
• 3 - Obligation determined based on the net imports, in the calculation the average naphtha yield is applied
• 4 - Obligation determined based on the inland consumption

Method for Emergency Stocks held by the MS

In the calculation of the monthly emergency stocks the reporting countries can select from two methods to calculate the crude oil equivalent of the petroleum products. The procedure is based on Annex III of the Directive 2009/119/EC. The selected methods are presented in the table with numbers 1 and 2.

• 1 - All petroleum products (excluding naphtha) are converted into crude oil equivalent, using a default value 1.065 - Annex III (a)
• 2 - Only certain petroleum products are considered (motor gasoline, aviation gasoline, gasoline-type jet fuel, kerosene-type jet fuel, other kerosene, gas/diesel oil and fuel oil) and the crude oil equivalent is calculated using a default value of 1.2 - Annex III (b)

Oil stocks refer to a calendar month.

Monthly oil stocks are compiled on the basis of the data Commission Regulation (EU) No 147/2013 of 13 February 2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics, as regards the implementation of updates for the monthly and annual energy statistics (ESR) and Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009 imposing an obligation on Member States to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and/or petroleum products (Oil Stockholding Directive).

Not available.

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.

See below.

The precise date of data release is disseminated on Eurostat's website (select language and release calendar).

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.

News releases on-line.

Not available.

The monthly oil stock data on quantities is published in Eurobase:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/data/database

Not applicable

There is a dedicated section in Eurobase for energy statistics

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Energy

where methodological guidelines, publications etc. are available.

Detailed information on the relevant methodology can be found in the Annex of For more details please see ESR and Directive 2009/119/EC.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

The main users of the monthly energy data are other units within Eurostat [“Transport”, “International trade”, etc.], other Directorates-General of the European Commission [DG ENER, DG MOVE, DG CLIMA, DG TAXUD, etc.], other European Institutions [European Parliament] and Agencies [European Environment Agency, the Energy Community Secretariat], international organisations [the International Energy Agency – IEA, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries –OPEC, etc.], national authorities, businesses, professional associations [Eurogas, Eurelectric, etc.], news agencies, researchers/academics and other users.

Not available.

Not available.

Data on oil stocks is submitted on the monthly questionnaires employing the methods laid down in the annex of Directive 2009/119/EC, in particularly:

- method for calculating the crude oil equivalent of imports of petroleum products (Annex I)

- method for calculating the crude oil equivalent for inland consumption (Annex II) 

- method for calculating the level of stocks held (Annex III)

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. 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.

Not available.

Not available.

As stipulated in Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on Energy Statistics and in Directive 2009/119/EC

Not available.

The EU reporting of emergency stocks is limited to the geographical area of the EU (a closed system). Thus, under the EU Emergency Reporting System stocks comprise only stocks of EU Member States. Stocks held by the Government, the CSE or the obligated / delegated economic operators on behalf of non-EU MS are excluded

Comparability over time is ensured with a constant methodology.

Dissemination is maintained on Eurostat's database on monthly basis for the energy quantity statistics.

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

Not available.

Not available.

Data are occasionally 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. In Italy, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Malta, Estonia, Slovenia, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria it is the Statistical Office that sends the questionnaires to Eurostat, while for the remaining Member States it is the Ministry responsible for Energy or a National Agency/Authority that is providing the energy data.

Questionnaires in standardized electronic format are collected from the national authorities via data transmission over the Internet. 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 - : https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/edamis).

Monthly

The data collection is a continous process.

All monthly data files are validated by Eurostat before publication.

See below

No adjustments of data are performed in a systematic way.

Not available.