Currently, the resumption of the processes of forming fuel and energy balances causes, on the one hand, the development of the methodology for compiling, planning and forecasting fuel and energy balances, and on the other hand, generates requirements for evaluating the formed balances to achieve strategic goals, identify favorable conditions for the development of the economy, industrial sectors of the energy complex and manufacturing industries. Based on the analysis of research by Russian and foreign scientists, regulatory support for the formation of fuel and energy balances and strategic planning documents, the allocation of statistical and environmental approaches to the essence of the fuel and energy balance is justified. The differences between the forecast and target fuel and energy balances according to their purpose and the basics of formation are considered, the differentiation of forecast and target balances is formulated. A classification of fuel and energy balances has been formed, a classification feature has been introduced that takes into account the proposed approaches to determining the essence of the fuel and energy balance. The energy efficiency programs of priority geostrategic regions are considered, as well as the directions for improving the efficiency of industry, fixed in the documents of strategic planning for the development of the Russian economy, on the basis of which it is concluded that the predominance of economic and environmental components in increasing the efficiency of industry and the requirement for the formation of a system of indicators justifying the degree of assessment of mutually coordinated current and future development of industrial, including energy, industries.