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Accuracy and reliability

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Prices and Consumption, Economic Statistics
Martin Ulrik Sdun
+45 39 17 36 83

mds@dst.dk

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Price of North Sea oil

The use of the oil price collected from S&P Global Platts, PCAAS00, as well as the calculation of the annual price as a simple average, is specifically mentioned in the comments to the Hydrocarbon Tax Act, the price's precision and representativeness for Danish North Sea oil is affected both by which fields are incorporated into the price for North Sea oil and how Platts makes quality adjustments.

Overall accuracy

The statistical precision depends on how well the reported price (PCAAS00) for North Sea oil from S&P Global Platts represents the sold production of oil in the Danish part of the North Sea. This representativeness is affected both by which fields are incorporated into the price for North Sea oil and how Platts makes quality adjustments.

Statistics Denmark assesses, at least annually, with the help of an expert group consisting of the Nordsøfonden (the Danish State Subsurface Resource Company) and the the Danish Energy Agency, the representativeness of PCAAS00 for production in Danish part of the North Sea oil. The expert group has assessed that the incorporation of WTI Midland from June 2023 does not decrease representativeness but rather enhances it.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

The primary uncertainty lies in PCAAS00's representativeness in relation to oil production in the Danish part of the North Sea. This uncertainty lies, among other things, in in the choices in relation to the calculation S&P Global Platts makes when calculating PCAAS0. Furthermore, the annual average calculated by Statistics Denmark is a simple average that does not take into account how large quantities have been sold on the individual days.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The quality of the statistics is assessed based on its purpose and definition in the Hydrocarbon Tax Act.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

Only final figures are published.