Canberra Group / Household Statistics (Completed)

Capital Stocks / Canberra I (Completed)
  Measurement of Non-financial Assets / Canberra II (Completed)
Delhi Group / Informal Sector Statistics
London Group / Enviromental Accounting
Ottawa Group / Price Statistics
Paris Group / Labour and Compensation (Completed)
Rio Group / Poverty Statistics (Completed)
Wiesbaden Group on Business Registers (formerly Roundtable on Business Survey Frames)
Siena Group / Social Statistics (Completed)
Voorburg Group /Service Statistics
  Washington Group / Disability Statistics
  Oslo Group / Energy Statistics
  Wye Group / Statistics on Rural Development & Agriculture Household Income

2 March 2011

Oslo Group on Energy Statistics

Purpose

To establish a forum for the countries to address issues related to energy statistics and contribute to improved international standards and improved methods for official energy statistics by pooling expertise in the energy community.

Year organized

2006

Participants

Experts from energy statistics producers (statistical offices and other energy statistics producers) from 21 different countries: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA and Yemen. International bodies: United Nations Statistics Division, International Energy Agency (IEA), Eurostat, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and International Monetary Fund Statistics Departments.

Meetings

First meeting: Oslo, 6-8 February 2006

Second meeting: Delhi, 5-7 February 2007

Third meeting: Vienna, 4-6 February 2008

Fourth meeting: Ottawa, 2-6 February 2009

Fifth meeting: Cork, 1-4 February 2010

Sixth meeting: Canberra, 2-5 May 2011

Topics considered

  • User needs for energy statistics
  • Scope of official energy statistics
  • National best practices
  • Selected methodological and quality problems in energy statistics
  • Needs for harmonization of important energy statistics systems
  • Key content provider for the new UN manuals on energy statistics, International Recommendation on Energy Statistics (IRES) and Energy Statistics Compilers Manual (ESCM)
  • Methods for improving consistency in different statistic systems and reducing response burden

Products

Presentations, papers, reports and all draft documents prepared for meetings and in the process of revision of the UN energy statistics manuals are available on the web-site http://og.ssb.no.

Planned activities

The Oslo Group at its third meeting agreed to contribute to the UN publication International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES) and a follow-up publication Energy Statistics Compilers Manual (ESCM) to provide additional guidance to data compilers by describing good practices and discussing technical matters not covered in IRES.

The final draft of IRES will be submitted to the UN Statistical Commission for adaptation in February 2011.

Preparation of ESCM:

The main activity for the Oslo Group in 2011 will be related to the drafting of chapters of the Energy Statistics Compilers Manual (ESCM). ESCM is intended to assist energy statistics compilers in the implementation of International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES), the forthcoming System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Energy (SEEA-Energy), and with other uses within the context of national accounts.

The focus of the manual is on compilation and reporting of energy statistics both nationally and internationally. It will contain description of good country practices and additional technical information relevant to all the tasks that energy statistics manager and compiler normally performs – from the legal and institutional settings and data collection from various sources to data compilation, assessment of quality and dissemination. ESCM is planned as a forward looking document with respect to the development and implementation of the integrated approach to compilation of basic statistics enabling countries to collect data once and use them many times for various purposes.

The practice on compilation of energy statistics is constantly evolving, therefore, in addition to the publication of ESCM as a hard copy, an electronic version of the document will be developed and periodically updated to reflect the new methodological developments, keep the compilers abreast with the good country practices and channel to them any new technical information.

The sixth meeting of the Oslo Group will be held in Canberra, Australia in May 2011 and will be dedicated to set up the issues to be addressed in ESCM and the drafting of chapters. The meeting will also focus on cooperation with other groups, and on collection of national and international best practices.

The time plan will be to have ESCM finalized in 2013.

Points of contact

Olav Ljones
Chair, Oslo Group on Energy Statistics
Statistics Norway
e-mail: olav.ljones@ssb.no

Elisabeth Isaksen
Secretariat leader, Oslo Group on Energy Statistics
Statistics Norway
e-mail: elisabeth.isaksen@ssb.no

Sadija Jama
Secretariat member, Oslo Group on Energy Statistics
Statistics Norway
e-mail: sadija.jama@ssb.no

The Oslo Group web site and discussion forum is available at: http://og.ssb.no.

Reporting to the UN Statistical Commission