Oil and natural gas in the North Sea

Contact info

National Accounts division, Department of Economic Statistics
Sara Svantesson
+45 30 46 42 06

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Oil and natural gas in the North Sea 2023

The purpose of this natural resource account is to analyze stocks and stock changes in oil and natural gas in the North Sea. The statistics is measured in both physical and monetary units. The time series are comparable from 1990 onwards.

Statistical presentation

The physical asset account and the monetary asset account for oil and gas in the North Sea is an annual statistics showing the reserves of oil and natural gas in the North Sea, which may be recovered under the given economic conditions and with known technology measured in cubic meters (m3). Both statistics show the reserves of oil and natural gas at the beginning of the year and the changes in the reserves during the year.

Statistical processing

Data for this statistic is provided annually by the Danish Energy Agency. Additional information is taken from the Energy Agency's publication on the oil and gas production. The collected data have undergone validation in the Energy Agency. The validation done by Statistics Denmark during the compilation of the natural resource accounts deals solely with ensuring consistency between the opening and closing stocks.

Relevance

The statistics is used for analysis and forecasting by ministries, industry associations, research institutions and consultants and other who want an overview of the relationships between the economy and the environment.

Accuracy and reliability

Based on the known knowledge and expectations about economic and technological aspects, the natural asset accounts provide an estimate of the size of the reserves of oil and natural gas in the North Sea. The Energy Agency changes the estimate of the reserves as the reserves are extracted and when new discoveries are made. Moreover, development of new extraction technology lead to revisions of estimates. The reserves are not a static physical quantity.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics is published without delay compared to the planned release times.

Comparability

The statistics are comparable from 1990 onwards. The statistics follow international standards and are thus comparable with similar statistics from other countries prepared in accordance with applicable international standards.

Accessibility and clarity

The data for the oil and natural gas in the North Sea is published in the Statbank in the tables OlieRg and GasRg. See more on statistics topic page.