The 24-million barrel question: Where is all that missing US oil?

US showed a crude supply adjustment factor -- the difference between reported stockpiles and those implied by production, refinery demand, imports and exports -- of more than 800,000 barrels a day

Oil traders and analysts closely watching weekly US inventory figures have been scratching their heads in the last few weeks wondering one thing: Where are the missing barrels?

US Energy Information Administration data Wednesday showed a crude supply adjustment factor -- the difference between reported stockpiles and those implied by production, refinery demand, imports and exports -- of more than 800,000 barrels a day. While that doesn’t seem like that much, it’s added up to more than 24 million barrels over the past four weeks, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in trading opportunities.

The figure tends to swing