Mineral and Energy Resources

This is part (v), the final part, of Chapter VI’s reference list of data items (see part (iv), economic performance data items). Data items on mineral and energy resources support assessment of their availability in the environment and of their depletion; this information is often used in compiling asset accounts in the SNA, as well as in SEEA-Energy. This section of IRES is based on the work carried out in the preparation of SEEA-Energy [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.88, PDF p. 98, 2018].

Table 6.1 — Mineral and energy resources relevant for energy

The mineral and energy resources relevant for energy statistics and accounts are a subset of the resources defined in the SEEA Central Framework, and comprise:

Mineral and energy resources relevant for energy
Oil resources
Natural gas resources
Coal and peat resources
Uranium and other nuclear fuels

[IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.89, Table 6.1, PDF p. 98, 2018; see also SEEA-Energy, table 2.5, footnote 56]

The UNFC 2009 classification scheme and Table 6.2

The United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources (UNFC 2009) provides a scheme for classifying and evaluating these resources according to three dimensions: (i) their economic and social viability; (ii) the field project’s status and feasibility; and (iii) the geological knowledge about the resources. SEEA-Energy groups the detailed categories of UNFC into three aggregated classes characterizing the commercial recoverability of the resources, as follows [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.90, PDF p. 98, 2018; see also SEEA-Energy, table 5.1, footnote 57]:

Categorization of mineral and energy resources relevant for energy
Class A: Commercially recoverable resources
Class B: Potentially commercially recoverable resources
Class C: Non-commercial and other known deposits

[IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.90, Table 6.2, PDF p. 98, 2018]

Data items on mineral and energy resources

The data items consist of opening and closing stock levels of energy resources, by type of resource (Table 6.1) and by type of characteristic (Table 6.2) [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.91, PDF pp. 98–99, 2018]:

Item number	Data item
8.1	Opening stocks of mineral and energy resources (by type of resources and by type of characteristics)
8.2	Closing stocks of mineral and energy resources (by type of resources and by type of characteristics)

[IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.91, Table, PDF p. 99, 2018]

The opening and closing stocks refer to the amount of the resource at the beginning and end of the reference year, by type of resource (Table 6.1) and type of characteristic (Table 6.2) [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.92, PDF p. 99, 2018]. Note that “stocks” here is understood as in the SEEA/SNA sense — any point-in-time accumulation within the economy, whether mineral and energy resources or energy products — rather than in the energy-statistics sense, where the equivalent concept is called “inventories” in SNA/SEEA terminology [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.92, footnote 58, PDF p. 99, 2018].

These data are generally estimated by geological institutes through geological modelling, rather than directly collected by the statistical agency responsible for compiling energy statistics [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.93, PDF p. 99, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter VI — Statistical Units and Data Items — the chapter digest this page supports
• Economic Performance Data Items — part (iv) of the reference list, immediately preceding this section
• System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Energy — the framework this section, and Tables 6.1–6.2, are based on
• United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources — the three-dimensional classification scheme SEEA-Energy’s Table 6.2 categories are grouped from
• System of National Accounts — the other standard whose asset accounts this resource data feeds into