Appendix B: detailed statistics explanatory notes

Petroleum Supply Monthly, May, 2004

The following Explanatory Notes are provided to assist in understanding and interpreting the data presented in the Detailed Statistics section of this publication.

* Note 1. Petroleum Supply Reporting System

* Note 2. Monthly Petroleum Supply Reporting System

* Note 3. Technical Notes for Detailed Statistics Tables

* Note 4. Domestic Crude Oil Production

* Note 5. Export Data

* Note 6. Quality Control and Data Revision

* Note 7. Frames Maintenance

* Note 8. Practical Limitations of Data Collection Efforts

* Note 9. 1994 Changes in the Petroleum Supply Monthly

Note 1. Petroleum Supply Reporting System

The Petroleum Supply Reporting System (PSRS) represents a family of data collection survey forms, data processing systems, and publication systems that have been consolidated to achieve comparability and consistency throughout. The survey forms that comprise the PSRS are listed below:

Form
Number    Name

EIA-800   "Weekly Refinery Report"
EIA-801   "Weekly Bulk Terminal Report"
EIA-802   "Weekly Product Pipeline Report"
EIA-803   "Weekly Crude Oil Stocks Report"
EIA-804   "Weekly Imports Report"
EIA-807   "Propane Telephone Survey"
EIA-810   "Monthly Refinery Report"
EIA-811   "Monthly Bulk Terminal Report"
EIA-812   "Monthly Product Pipeline Report"
EIA-813   "Monthly Crude Oil Report"
EIA-814   "Monthly Imports Report"
EIA-816   "Monthly Natural Gas Liquids Report"
EIA-817   "Monthly Tanker and Barge Movement Report"
EIA-819   "Monthly Oxygenate Telephone Report"
EIA-820   "Annual Refinery Report"

Forms EIA-800 through 804 comprise the Weekly Petroleum Supply Reporting System (WPSRS). A sample of all petroleum companies report weekly data to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on crude oil and petroleum product stocks, refinery inputs and production, and crude oil and petroleum product imports. The sample of companies that report weekly is selected from the universe of companies that report on the comparable monthly surveys. Data collected from the WPSRS are used to develop estimates of the most current monthly quantities in the Summary Statistics section of the Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) and which appear in the Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR).

The Form EIA-807, "Propane Telephone Survey" is used to collect data on production, stocks, and imports of propane. These data are used to monitor the supply of propane and to report to the Congress and others on supplies when requested. Data are collected from a sample of respondents reporting on the Monthly Petroleum Supply Reporting System (MPSRS) surveys. Data are collected on a weekly basis and published in the WPSR.

Forms EIA-810 through 814, 816, and 817 comprise the MPSRS. These surveys are used to collect detailed refinery/ blender and natural gas plant operations data; refinery/ blender, bulk terminal, natural gas plant, and pipeline stocks data; crude oil and petroleum product imports data; and data on movements of petroleum products and crude oil between Petroleum Administration for Defense (PAD) Districts. A description of the MPSRS forms follows in Explanatory Note 2.

Data from these surveys are published in preliminary form in the PSM. They are published in final form in the Petroleum Supply Annual (PSA), Volumes 1 and 2.

Summary information on the revision error between preliminary and final data is published once a year in the PSM feature article entitled, "Accuracy of Petroleum Supply Data." The last article was published in the October 2003 issue and evaluated the accuracy of the data for the current year compared with the previous year.

The Form EIA-819M, "Monthly Oxygenate Telephone Report," is used to collect preliminary data on production and stocks of oxygenates by PAD District. These data are used to monitor the supply of oxygenates. Data are collected from a sample of respondents reporting on the MPSRS surveys and from the universe of oxygenate producers. Data are published in Appendix D of this publication and in the WPSR.

The Form EIA-820, "Annual Refinery Report," is used to collect data on refinery fuel use and consumption of steam and electricity, refinery receipts of crude oil by method of transportation, operable capacity for atmospheric crude oil distillation units and downstream units, as well as production capacity and storage capacity for petroleum products. This survey is the primary source of data in the Refinery Capacity section of the PSA Volume 1.

Note 2. Monthly Petroleum Supply Reporting System

The Monthly Petroleum Supply Reporting System (MPSRS) was implemented in January 1983 as the result of an extensive effort by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to integrate the collection and processing of petroleum supply data that had been collected on other survey forms for many years. The collection of monthly petroleum supply statistics began as early as 1918 when the U.S. Bureau of Mines began collecting data on refinery operations, crude oil stocks and movements. The collection systems were further expanded in 1925 to include natural gas plant liquids production and storage, imports of crude oil and petroleum products and storage and movement of petroleum products in 1959, and tanker and barge movements of crude oil and petroleum products in 1964. Since their inception, each survey has undergone numerous changes, but the MPSRS was the first effort to make them all consistent and comparable. The forms that comprise the MPSRS are: