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SIEC Classification System

explains SIEC's purpose and scope, maps its four-level hierarchy and coding system, connects its categories with HS and CPC, reproduces the full code list, and cross-classifies headings by primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable status

SIEC Classification System

The Standard International Energy Product Classification (SIEC) arranges internationally agreed definitions of energy products into the structure of a statistical classification [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.2, PDF p. 34, 2018]. This page covers SIEC’s purpose and scope, its classification design, and its four-level coding system, including the full code list (Table 3.1). Individual product definitions live on the product pages (wiki/pages/products/).

Purpose

SIEC’s main purpose is to serve as a basis for developing or revising national classification schemes for energy products, making them compatible with international standards and thereby improving cross-country comparability of energy data [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.5, PDF p. 34, 2018]. It is designed to be multipurpose: individual SIEC products and aggregates are meant to suit different country circumstances and to be relevant across policy and analytical contexts, and SIEC is periodically reviewed and revised to reflect changes in energy production and consumption patterns [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.5, PDF pp. 34–35, 2018].

For data collection specifically, SIEC will: (i) standardize compilation and processing via a uniform, hierarchical coding system; (ii) ensure international comparability of disseminated national data; and (iii) facilitate linking energy product stocks/flows with international trade data and other economic statistics [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.6, PDF p. 35, 2018].

Scope

SIEC aims to cover all products needed for a comprehensive picture of energy production, transformation and consumption across an economy. Its scope consists of: (a) fuels — energy sources, whether primary or secondary, that must be subjected to combustion or fission to release their stored energy — produced or generated by an economic unit (including households) and used or usable as an energy source; and (b) electricity generated by an economic unit (including households), and heat generated and sold to third parties by an economic unit [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.7, footnote 19, PDF p. 35, 2018].

The fuel coverage is refined by three rules:

  1. All fossil fuels — coal, peat, oil and natural gas, though peat’s inclusion among fossil fuels is not universally accepted — are within scope whether or not they are actually used for energy purposes, except that peat used for non-energy purposes is excluded [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.8(i), footnote 20, PDF p. 35, 2018].
  2. Products derived from fossil fuels are always within scope when used (or intended to be used) for energy purposes, i.e. as fuels [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.8(ii), PDF p. 35, 2018].
  3. Products derived from fossil fuels used (or intended) for non-energy purposes are within scope only if they are the output of an energy industry (e.g. refineries, gas plants, coal mining or coal manufacturing) — included because they explain how much apparent energy supply is diverted to other purposes and allow a complete assessment of the industries involved [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.8(iii), PDF p. 35, 2018].

Non-fossil fuels such as waste, agricultural crops or other biomass are within scope only when actually used for energy purposes, so their inclusion in total energy production is derived from demand-side information rather than assumed from origin [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.10, footnote 21, PDF p. 35, 2018].

An energy product, in IRES’s usage, is any product covered by this SIEC scope [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.11, PDF p. 35, 2018]. See Energy Products for the general definition and the worked boundary example (lubricants, corncobs). SIEC provides definitions for all energy products, but individual applications of energy statistics may cover only a subset — for example, nuclear fuels are within SIEC’s scope but are not used in energy balances [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.12, PDF pp. 35–36, 2018].

Correspondence with HS and CPC

SIEC categories are cross-referenced to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) and the Central Product Classification (CPC), facilitating the integration of energy statistics with other economic statistics [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.2, PDF p. 34, 2018]. The HS correspondence is particularly useful because international transactions in energy products are defined in HS terms, and importing/exporting companies' customs documentation already carries HS codes; CPC aggregates HS headings into groupings of interest for economic statistics generally [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.3, PDF p. 34, 2018]. These correspondences are indicative: HS and CPC categories are often broader and may contain more elements than the matching SIEC category, though national/regional HS adaptations (e.g. the European Combined Nomenclature) can be more precise, particularly for refined petroleum products [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.4, footnote 17, PDF p. 34, 2018].

Classification design

SIEC categories are designed to be exhaustive and mutually exclusive, so any product within SIEC’s general scope belongs to exactly one SIEC category for a given application [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.13, footnote 22, PDF p. 36, 2018]. At the highest level, SIEC has ten sections: eight fuel categories — coal, peat and peat products, oil shale/oil sands, natural gas, oil, biofuels, waste, and nuclear fuels and other fuels — distinguished by origin and characteristics, plus electricity and heat. Where applicable, fuel categories are further disaggregated by physical characteristics (e.g. brown coal vs. hard coal) and stage of processing, with unprocessed products preceding processed ones in the coding order; for some categories, disaggregation instead reflects intended use (e.g. kerosene splits into kerosene-type jet fuel and other kerosene) [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.13, PDF p. 36, 2018].

Some physically similar products are classified separately because they differ in origin or intended use — natural gas and landfill gas are both mainly methane but differ in source and production method; natural gas liquids and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) both contain propane, but LPG is a refined propane/butane-only mix while NGL is a less-refined mix; and feedstocks may include products (e.g. naphtha) that also appear elsewhere in SIEC but are classified separately because of their destined use [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.14, PDF p. 36, 2018].

Electricity and heat are not further disaggregated in SIEC: unlike fuels, they are not physical substances distinguishable by origin, composition or intended purpose, even though they can be produced by different processes (e.g. direct conversion of solar radiation, falling water, or fuel combustion). Distinguishing production processes for these two products is handled on the production side rather than through SIEC categories — see Electricity and Heat Production [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.15, PDF p. 36, 2018].

The primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable distinctions are not explicit SIEC classification criteria, although in many cases a complete detailed SIEC category can be clearly assigned to one set; the full list of which products count as primary or secondary and renewable or non-renewable is given in Annex A [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.16, PDF p. 36, 2018] — reproduced in full below (§ “Annex A”). See Energy Products for the primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable distinctions themselves, including the compact cross-classification grid.

Coding system

The SIEC hierarchy has four levels: sections (first level), divisions (second level), groups (third level) and classes (fourth level). Codes are four-digit numbers: the first digit gives the section, the first two digits the division, the first three the group, and all four digits together designate a class [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.17, PDF p. 36, 2018]. The hierarchy groups basic categories into higher-level aggregations, so that each level provides analytically useful statistical information [IRES, Ch. III, para. 3.18, PDF p. 36, 2018].

Table 3.1 — Standard International Energy Product Classification (SIEC)

[IRES, Ch. III, Table 3.1, PDF pp. 37–39, 2018]

Section/Division/Group Class Title CPC Ver.2 HS 2007
0 Coal
01 Hard coal
011 0110 Anthracite 11010* 2701.11
012 Bituminous coal
0121 Coking coal 11010* 2701.19
0129 Other bituminous coal 11010* 2701.12
02 Brown coal
021 0210 Sub-bituminous coal 11030* 2702.10*
022 0220 Lignite 11030* 2702.10*
03 Coal products
031 Coal coke
0311 Coke oven coke 33100* 2704*
0312 Gas coke 33100* 2704*
0313 Coke breeze 33100* 2704*
0314 Semi cokes 33100* 2704*
032 0320 Patent fuel 11020 2701.20
033 0330 Brown coal briquettes (BKB) 11040 2702.20
034 0340 Coal tar 33200* 2706
035 0350 Coke oven gas 17200* 2705*
036 0360 Gas works gas (and other manufactured gases for distribution) 17200* 2705*
037 Recovered gases
0371 Blast furnace gas 17200* 2705*
0372 Basic oxygen steel furnace gas 17200* 2705*
0379 Other recovered gases 17200* 2705*
039 0390 Other coal products 33500*, 34540* 2707, 2708.10*, 2708.20*, 2712.90*
1 Peat and peat products
11 Peat
111 1110 Sod peat 11050* 2703*
112 1120 Milled peat 11050* 2703*
12 Peat products
121 1210 Peat briquettes 11050* 2703*
129 1290 Other peat products 11050*, 33100*, 33200*, 33500* 2703*, 2704*, 2706*, 2712.90*
2 Oil shale/oil sands
20 Oil shale/oil sands
200 2000 Oil shale/oil sands 12030 2714.10
3 Natural gas
30 Natural gas
300 3000 Natural gas 12020 2711.11, 2711.21
4 Oil
41 Conventional crude oil
410 4100 Conventional crude oil 12010* 2709*
42 Natural gas liquids (NGL)
420 4200 Natural gas liquids (NGL) 33420* 2711.14, 2711.19*, 2711.29*
43 Refinery feedstocks
430 4300 Refinery feedstocks (a) (a)
44 Additives and oxygenates
440 4400 Additives and oxygenates 34131*, 34139*, 34170*, others 2207.20*, 2905.11, 2909.19*, others
45 Other hydrocarbons
450 4500 Other hydrocarbons 12010*, 34210* 2709*, 2804.10
46 Oil products
461 4610 Refinery gas 33420* 2711.29*
462 4620 Ethane 33420* 2711.19*, 2711.29*
463 4630 Liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) 33410 2711.12, 2711.13
464 4640 Naphtha 33330* 2710.11*
465 Gasolines
4651 Aviation gasoline 33310* 2710.11*
4652 Motor gasoline 33310* 2710.11*
4653 Gasoline-type jet fuel 33320 2710.11*
466 Kerosenes
4661 Kerosene-type jet fuel 33342 2710.19*
4669 Other kerosene 33341 2710.19*
467 Gas oil/diesel oil and heavy gas oil
4671 Gas oil/diesel oil 33360* 2710.19*
4672 Heavy gas oil 33360* 2710.19*
468 4680 Fuel oil 33370 2710.19*
469 Other oil products
4691 White spirit and special boiling point industrial spirits 33330* 2710.11*
4692 Lubricants 33380* 2710.19*
4693 Paraffin waxes 33500* 2712.20*
4694 Petroleum coke 33500*, 34540* 2708.20*, 2713.11, 2713.12
4695 Bitumen 33500* 2713.20
4699 Other oil products n.e.c. 33330*, 33350*, 33380*, 33420*, 33500*, 34540* 2707*, 2708.10*, 2710.11*, 2710.19*, 2711.14*, 2712.10*, 2712.20*, 2712.90*, 2713.90
5 Biofuels
51 Solid biofuels
511 Fuelwood, wood residues and by-products
5111 Wood pellets 39280* 4401.30*
5119 Other fuelwood, wood residues and by-products 03130, 31230, 39280* 4401.10, 4401.21, 4401.22, 4401.30*
512 5120 Bagasse 39140* 2303.20*
513 5130 Animal waste 34654* 3101*
514 5140 Black liquor 39230* 3804.00*
515 5150 Other vegetal material and residues 01913, 21710, 34654*, 39120*, 39150* 0901.90*, 1213, 1802*, 2302*, 2304, 2305, 2306, 3101
516 5160 Charcoal 34510 4402
52 Liquid biofuels
521 5210 Biogasoline 34131*, 34139*, 34170* 2207.20*, 2905.11*, 2905.13*, 2905.14*, 2909.19*
522 5220 Biodiesels 35490* 3824.90*
523 5230 Bio jet kerosene
529 5290 Other liquid biofuels
53 Biogases
531 Biogases from anaerobic fermentation
5311 Landfill gas 33420* 2711.29*
5312 Sewage sludge gas 33420* 2711.29*
5319 Other biogases from anaerobic fermentation 33420* 2711.29*
532 5320 Biogases from thermal processes
6 Waste
61 Industrial waste
610 6100 Industrial waste 3921, 39220, 39240, 39250, 39260, 39270, 39290 2525.30, 2601, 3915, 4004, 4012.20, 4115.20, 4707, 5003, 5103.20, 5103.30, 5104, 5202, 5505, 6309, 6310
62 Municipal waste
620 6200 Municipal waste 39910 3825.10
7 Electricity
70 Electricity
700 7000 Electricity 17100 2716
8 Heat
80 Heat
800 8000 Heat 17300 2201.90*
9 Nuclear fuels and other fuels n.e.c.
91 Uranium and plutonium
910 Uranium and plutonium
9101 Uranium ores 13000* 2612.10
9109 Other uranium and plutonium 33610, 33620, 33630*, 33710, 33720 2844.10, 2844.20, 2844.30*, 2844.50, 8401.30
92 Other nuclear fuels
920 9200 Other nuclear fuels 33630*, 33690* 2844.30*, 2844.40*
99 Other fuels n.e.c.
990 9900 Other fuels n.e.c.

Notes to Table 3.1 [IRES, Ch. III, Table 3.1 notes, PDF p. 39, 2018]:

  • Coal products refer to products derived from hard coal and brown coal. Peat products refer to products derived from peat. Oil products refer to products derived from processing conventional crude oil, NGLs, other hydrocarbons, refinery feedstocks, etc.
  • An asterisk (*) next to a CPC or HS code indicates a partial link only.
  • (a) Since the definition of feedstocks is primarily based on intended use, giving an explicit CPC/HS link could be misleading; feedstocks may cover a wider range of products, including naphthas (HS 2710.11) and pyrolysis gasoline (HS 2707.50), among others.
  • Descriptions and definitions of the CPC and HS codes can be accessed on the websites of their custodians, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the World Customs Organization (WCO), respectively.
  • Revised correspondence tables between SIEC and updated versions of CPC or HS are available on the UNSD Classifications website (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/class).

Annex A — Primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable status of SIEC headings

At the time of IRES’s publication no internationally agreed definition of renewable and non-renewable products was available; the list below is therefore indicative and subject to amendments [IRES, Annex A, PDF p. 158, 2018]. It assigns every SIEC heading (sections 0–9) a Primary (P) / Secondary (S) status and a Renewable (R) / Non-renewable (NR) status, cross-classifying the distinctions introduced at energy-products § Primary/secondary; renewable/non-renewable [IRES, Annex A, PDF pp. 158–161, 2018].

Note on blank cells: blank P/S or R/NR cells are genuine in the source, not extraction gaps. Per para 3.16 above, these two distinctions are not explicit SIEC classification criteria, so IRES does not assign a status to every heading — most conspicuously the four whole-section aggregates Oil (§4, P/S blank), Electricity (§7, both blank), Heat (§8, both blank) and Nuclear fuels and other fuels n.e.c. (§9, both blank), plus a handful of subordinate headings (Other hydrocarbons, division 45/class 4500; the “Waste” section header, §6, which carries P but no R/NR). These are left blank below exactly as in the source.

Table — SIEC Headings, primary/secondary and renewable/non-renewable status [IRES, Annex A, PDF pp. 158–161, 2018]

Section/Division/Group Class Title Primary (P)/Secondary (S) Renewable (R)/Non-renewable (NR)
0 Coal NR
01 Hard coal P NR
011 0110 Anthracite P NR
012 Bituminous coal P NR
0121 Coking coal P NR
0129 Other bituminous coal P NR
02 Brown coal P NR
021 0210 Sub-bituminous coal P NR
022 0220 Lignite P NR
03 Coal products S NR
031 Coal coke S NR
0311 Coke oven coke S NR
0312 Gas coke S NR
0313 Coke breeze S NR
0314 Semi cokes S NR
032 0320 Patent fuel S NR
033 0330 Brown coal briquettes (BKB) S NR
034 0340 Coal tar S NR
035 0350 Coke oven gas S NR
036 0360 Gas works gas (and other manufactured gases for distribution) S NR
037 Recovered gases S NR
0371 Blast furnace gas S NR
0372 Basic oxygen steel furnace gas S NR
0379 Other recovered gases S NR
039 0390 Other coal products S NR
1 Peat and peat products NR
11 Peat P NR
111 1110 Sod peat P NR
112 1120 Milled peat P NR
12 Peat products S NR
121 1210 Peat briquettes S NR
129 1290 Other peat products S NR
2 Oil shale/oil sands P NR
20 Oil shale/oil sands P NR
200 2000 Oil shale/oil sands P NR
3 Natural gas P NR
30 Natural gas P NR
300 3000 Natural gas P NR
4 Oil NR
41 Conventional crude oil P NR
410 4100 Conventional crude oil P NR
42 Natural gas liquids (NGL) P NR
420 4200 Natural gas liquids (NGL) P NR
43 Refinery feedstocks S NR
430 4300 Refinery feedstocks S NR
44 Additives and oxygenates S NR
440 4400 Additives and oxygenates S NR
45 Other hydrocarbons
450 4500 Other hydrocarbons
46 Oil products S NR
461 4610 Refinery gas S NR
462 4620 Ethane S NR
463 4630 Liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) S NR
464 4640 Naphtha S NR
465 Gasolines S NR
4651 Aviation gasoline S NR
4652 Motor gasoline S NR
4653 Gasoline-type jet fuel S NR
466 Kerosenes S NR
4661 Kerosene-type jet fuel S NR
4669 Other kerosene S NR
467 Gas oil/diesel oil and heavy gas oil S NR
4671 Gas oil/diesel oil S NR
4672 Heavy gas oil S NR
468 4680 Fuel oil S NR
469 Other oil products S NR
4691 White spirit and special boiling point industrial spirits S NR
4692 Lubricants S NR
4693 Paraffin waxes S NR
4694 Petroleum coke S NR
4695 Bitumen S NR
4699 Other oil products n.e.c. S NR
5 Biofuels R
51 Solid biofuels R
511 Fuelwood, wood residues and by-products P R
5111 Wood pellets P R
5119 Other fuelwood, wood residues and by-products P R
512 5120 Bagasse P R
513 5130 Animal waste P R
514 5140 Black liquor P R
515 5150 Other vegetal material and residues P R
516 5160 Charcoal S R
52 Liquid biofuels P R
521 5210 Biogasoline P R
522 5220 Biodiesels P R
523 5230 Bio jet kerosene P R
529 5290 Other liquid biofuels P R
53 Biogases P R
531 Biogases from anaerobic fermentation P R
5311 Landfill gas P R
5312 Sewage sludge gas P R
5319 Other biogases from anaerobic fermentation P R
532 5320 Biogases from thermal processes P R
6 Waste P
61 Industrial waste P NR
610 6100 Industrial waste P NR
62 Municipal waste P R/NR
620 6200 Municipal waste P R/NR
7 Electricity
70 Electricity
700 7000 Electricity
8 Heat
80 Heat
800 8000 Heat
9 Nuclear fuels and other fuels n.e.c.
91 Uranium and plutonium
910 Uranium and plutonium
9101 Uranium ores
9109 Other uranium and plutonium
92 Other nuclear fuels
920 9200 Other nuclear fuels
99 Other fuels n.e.c.
990 9900 Other fuels n.e.c.

113 headings in total (matching the count of distinct Section/Division/Group/Class rows in Table 3.1 above), verified row-for-row against the raw layout extraction (raw/_pdftotext/ires/12-annexes-references-layout.txt) to confirm every blank cell is genuine rather than a cleaning artifact.

Municipal waste’s split status (§62, “P | R/NR”): footnote 89 explains that the part of municipal waste of biomass origin is considered renewable, while the part of fossil origin is considered non-renewable [IRES, Annex A, footnote 89, PDF p. 158, 2018].

Footnote 90 (renewable electricity/heat sources): renewable sources of electricity comprise hydro, wind, solar (photovoltaic and solar thermal), geothermal, wave, tide and other marine energy, as well as the combustion of biofuels; renewable sources of heat are solar thermal, geothermal and the combustion of biofuels [IRES, Annex A, footnote 90, PDF p. 158, 2018].

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