Supply and use satellite accounts for extra-regio activities: 1998-2023

Historically, economic statistics produced by the government in Scotland (both pre- and post-devolution) were developed to be consistent with, or to expand upon, the information available in the Regional Accounts produced by ONS. As such, they related to onshore activity only, while all offshore oil and gas extraction was treated as a separate extra-regio activity not associated with any region of the UK.

This territorial concept of Scotland results in all UK offshore activity being treated as part of the rest of the UK (RUK), and all transactions between onshore Scottish units and offshore operators being counted as external transactions (otherwise known as trade). This means that sales from Scottish companies to offshore operators have been classified as Scottish exports to RUK, whilst oil produced in Scottish adjacent waters and landed in Scotland is considered to be an import from RUK.

In more recent years, some economic statistics for Scotland have been produced using a wider concept of the economic territory for Scotland which includes an illustrative geographical share of extra-regio activity. Of increasing interest has been the need to better understand the overall trade position of Scotland, and to better understand the links between the oil and gas industry and its onshore supply chain. This project has advanced the development of economic statistics for Scotland to include activities within this wider economic territory.

Further information on the background and methods used for these statistics can be found in the original statistics development paper published in 2018.