Sales of petroleum products and liquid biofuels

The number of litres sold is registered in the country of delivery. The purchaser's main area of business (measured by turnover) determines which purchaser group (industry) the sale is registered in. The statistics include deliveries in Norway (incl. Svalbard, Bjørnøya and Jan Mayen) and on the Norwegian continental shelf. Deliveries to Norwegian ships and airplanes abroad are not included. Ordinary export is not registered even if the delivery is free on board (FOB) in a Norwegian harbour.

The Standard Industrial Classification (SN2007) is used to distribute deliveries of petroleum- and bio products by industry in the annual statistics.

Classification of county municipality is used in the annual statistics.

Name: Sales of petroleum products and liquid biofuels
Topic: Energy and manufacturing

425 Division for Energy, Environmental and Transport Statistics

County and national level

Yearly publication: Final figures are published approximately three months after the end of the reference year.

Monthly publication: Preliminary delivery figures and prices are published approximately three weeks after the end of the reference month.

Monthly report to Eurostat and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The purpose of the statistics is to show deliveries of petroleum products by purchaser group, county and at national level, measured as delivered litres. Furthermore, the statistics compare the delivery figures of the different oil companies (user-financed assignment). In addition prices on some selected petroleum products are published from February 2010. In 2022, the statistics were expanded to also include sales of liquid pure biofuels and other bioproducts.

Until 1973, the Ministry of Trade collected figures on deliveries of petroleum products from the oil companies. The figures were distributed by county and some purchaser/consumer groups, and were presented in statistical tables once a year. As of 1973, monthly tables were produced in Statistics Norway. This was a result of cooperation between Statistics Norway, the Ministry of Trade, Drivkraft Norge (formerly The Norwegian Petroleum Institute) and the oil companies. Based on experience and changing conditions, the production and content of the statistics have changed several times since 1973.

The statistics for sales of petroleum products and liquid biofuels are used by the public sector, players in the petroleum industry, interest groups and the media. Internally in Statistics Norway, the statistics are important as a source in the emission accounts, the national accounts and the energy accounts and energy balance. The results are also used indirectly in analyzes and research at Statistics Norway.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The statistics on deliveries of petroleum products form part of the data basis in the energy accounts and energy balance.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

The statistics are part of the national programme for official statistics, under the statistical domain Energy and manufacturing and sub-domain Petroleum.

Regulation NO 1099/2008

The population consists of large international companies that sell petroleum products and liquid biofuels in Norway and local oil companies with sales exceeding a certain amount. The latter submit a less detailed report.

Companies who submit a complete data set submit the data electronically on files. Other companies submit their data in a form. In addition, import and export data from the statistics on external trade are used.

From January 2017, the prices are based on average retail prices.

The sample consists of large oil companies that submit complete reports and some smaller companies that submit a less detailed report (jet fuel, bitumen and lubricant oils). In addition, the sample includes direct imports by a number of small companies.

The companies send their data electronically or via forms.

Total sales for each company are compared with additional information from the company. In addition, the companies check that the complete statistics correspond with their figures.

The statistics are estimated by counting the number of litres sold of each petroleum product from each company, distributed by purchaser group and county.

From January 2017 the prices were based on average retail prices.

Not relevant

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

Figures are available back to 1952.

Until December 2016, the prices on petroleum products were collected form the consumer price index. From January 2017, the prices are based on average retail prices.

The fact that there are relatively few respondents limits the possibilities for collection and processing errors.

If a company does not meet the delivery deadline, figures for the corresponding month last year are used. These are corrected as soon as the new figures are delivered.

Full count

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

On the 14th of April 2021 yearly figures for marine gas oils and dutiable auto diesel were corrected for the period 2012-2019. Previously collected sales figures for these products had been too low.

Monthly sales figures (preliminary statistics) were corrected back to 2020. This correction means that monthly figures for dutiable auto diesel and marine gas oils (and the total) from 2020 onwards are not comparable with periods before 2020.