IEA projections for global oil stocks have shown 270,000 barrels go missing per day

Counting oil barrels can be a somewhat imprecise science as even blue-chip petroleum firms are sometimes forced to admit. But energy hedge fund managers are grappling with the mystery, ramifications and opportunities of analysts' miscounting approximately 93 million barrels of crude oil in 2003. That is, more or less, the number by which global crude production, minus use of crude plus stockpiling, was out last year - amounting to about 1% of global production. "It is a lot of barrels to miss, or to hide," says David Newton, director at London energy and metals hedge fund managers, Gl...