JODI-Oil FAQ / What kind of oil stock data is reported in the JODI-Oil Questionnaire?

• Yui Torikata / IEF

• Join Date:May 2011 Posted by  Yui Torikata/ IEF / 28.05.2014 12:19

  Oil stock data is mainly categorised in tree kinds: primary stocks, secondary stocks, and tertiary stocks.
  
  Primary stocks are held by the various companies supplying the market, ranging from producers to refiners to importers. Primary stocks are held in refinery tanks, bulk terminals, pipeline tankages, barges and coastal tankers (if they stay in the same country), tankers in port (if they are to be discharged at port) and inland ship bunkers. Additionally, stocks held for strategic purposes by governments (e.g. US SPR) or by stockholding organisations (e.g. EBV in Germany) are included in the primary stock category.
  
  Secondary stocks are stocks in small bulk plants (marketing facilities below a certain capacity - e.g. 50,000 bl in US - which receive their product by rail or truck) and retail establishments.
  
  Tertiary stocks are stocks held by final end-consumers. They can be power plants, industrial entities or consumers in the residential/commercial sector.
  
  Only data on primary oil stocks (both crude oil and products) should be reported in the JODI-Oil Questionnaire, for several reasons:
  
  1. The most important data on stocks are primary oil stocks. These are stocks held by producers, refiners, importers, stock holding organisations and strategic stocks. The oil in pipelines or in rail tank cars, in road tank wagons, etc. which are necessary to keep the supply system operational are of lesser interest – they cannot be used as otherwise the supply system would break down.
  
  
  2. Data on primary oil stocks is the easiest to collect. Data for secondary and tertiary stocks is rarely collected, as it is very difficult to obtain. The reason for this is that there are often too many retail stations or small bulk plants in the country, and as a consequence the number of end-users from which data would need to be collected is enormous. However, despite the lack of information, secondary and tertiary stocks can be very important as they sometimes undergo large fluctuations, e.g. household heating oil tanks are rapidly depleted when weather is cold; retail stations stock levels can be considerably run down when a tax increase is expected. Please note that terminology can differ in some countries, where no distinction is made between secondary and tertiary stocks and both categories are aggregated into secondary stocks.
  
  
  3. Information on primary oil stocks is consistent with the definition of "consumption" or to be more precise, "sales", which includes only sales or deliveries made by refineries and importers (i.e. primary suppliers); secondary and tertiary stocks should not be included.
  
  Primary oil stocks also represent storage of oil at a more centralised point in the supply chain, where it is feasible for them to be redirected. This is particularly important for oil importing countries during supply disruptions, as they need to know the potential volume of oil available to them. An example of these stocks is oil held at terminals, or in partly loaded tankers.

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