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Background Notes

Forecourts accounted for 77% of autodiesel sales in 2023

Online ISSN: 2565-6414
CSO statistical publication, , 11am

Introduction

This release relates to final movements of the main fuel oils to forecourts and enterprises. The release complements the CSO Fuel Excise Clearances release which refers to withdrawals from a Revenue bonded warehouse and hence are at an earlier point in the distribution chain. The focus of the release is on the share delivered to forecourts and on the county breakdown. The annual totals have been adjusted to correspond with the annual totals in the Fuel Excise Clearances release.

Legal Basis

Statutory Instrument No. 231 of 2012 relates to the Mineral Oil Tax Regulations. The CSO requested access to the ROM1 microdata under Section 30 of the Statistics Act, 1993.

Mineral Oil Traders

The Revenue Commissioners maintain a register of licensed Auto fuel and Marked fuel traders.

See Revenue website for Register of licensed auto-fuel traders and Register of licensed marked fuel traders.

Coverage

All holders of Auto fuel or Marked fuel traders licences must submit a monthly Return of Oil Movements (ROM1) return to the Revenue Commissioners. This return must be submitted through Revenue's Online Service (ROS).Traders must file the ROM1 return by the 25th day of the month following the reporting period. The following information must be included on the ROM1 return:

  • Opening balance by product type
  • Closing balance by product type
  • Each inward movement by product type, date, quantity, invoice and supplier (quoting the Licence reference or VAT number)
  • Each outward movement by product type, date, quantity, invoice, customer (quoting the Licence reference or VAT number) and aggregate details for forecourt sales
  • Aggregate sales by oil product type for domestic customers and commercial customers who receive less than 2,000 litres per month and who are not required to be licensed.

Questionnaire

Traders submit the monthly returns using the Revenue Online Service (ROS).

Types of Movement

There are different types of movement in the monthly ROM1 returns: Shipments In (imports); Intermediate movements; Final movements; and Shipments Out (exports). This release is an analysis of final movements which includes:

  • Direct sales by a trader to a final customer;
  • Aggregate sales such as home heating oil deliveries where each individual sale is below the reporting threshold of 2,000 litres per month that would require the customer to be separately identified; and
  • Forecourt sales (these include both forecourts that are open to the general public and private forecourts such as a yacht club). 

General Claims District

The ROM1 returns submitted by traders are classified by General Claims District. These indicate the tax district of the ROM1 trader. Traders submit data for each district that they are operating in. These GCDs are a mixture of individual counties and groupings of counties e.g. Limerick, Clare, Kerry, and Tipperary comprise GCD number 17. The GCD districts were revised during 2018.

Fuels in ROM1 Data Collection

The ROM1 file provided by the Revenue Commissioners to the CSO contains movement information for eleven fuels:

  • Petrol;
  • Aviation gasoline;
  • DERV or road diesel;
  • Heavy oil used for air navigation;
  • Ultra low sulphur marked gas oil;
  • Marked gas oil;
  • Kerosene other than as propellant;
  • Substitute fuel propellant petrol;
  • Substitute fuel propellant diesel;
  • LPG for use as a propellant; and
  • LPG other.

Data Editing

The microdata received by the CSO includes revisions to previously reported data. The CSO has edited the data extensively to remove duplication arising from corrected returns, incorrect units (e.g. if the data are submitted in litres rather than hectolitres), and incorrect fuel codes.

Data Units

The reporting unit is the standard litre, i.e. the volume which the oil would occupy if its temperature was 15 degrees Celsius. 

NACE Rev.2

No NACE analyses have been provided in this release as it is not possible to classify all final consumers by NACE e.g. purchases of fuel at forecourts includes both private motorists and commercial vehicles. Similarly below threshold sales of kerosene could be to both the residential sector and to small enterprises. 

Revisions

The figures are subject to revision on an ongoing basis. The CSO has adjusted the data to agree with the annual figures in the CSO Fuel Excise Clearances release. This means that the revisions will be at county level rather than at State level as the adjustment factors will be recalculated at State level to maintain agreement with fuel excise clearances.

County

County level data should be interpreted with caution and the trend may be more useful than the absolute figures. The county assignment is derived from a number of sources:

  • Forecourt sales were classified by the county the forecourt is located in. Sales in forecourts located close to main national roads and close to the border are examples of where the vehicle may be driven in counties other than that of the forecourt.
  • Non-forecourt sales are a mixture of direct sales to individual enterprises and aggregate sales. The address of customers that receive 2,000 litres or more per month are recorded in the ROM1 returns and have been used to assign a county location.
  • Customers that receive less than 2,000 litres per month are not required to be licensed and hence their location is not recorded in the ROM1 returns. For those customers, the county of the Auto fuel or Marked fuel trader was used. Hence all sales of a company distributing home heating oil to households were assigned to the county of the trader.

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