Yes, and here is a key quote from the definition that possibly constitutes the basis for a significant degree of misleading inflation in the all-important "crude plus condensate" category that has been the object of such heated debate lately on TOD:

"Since March 2006, Venezuelan heavy Orinoco crude has been included in the conventional crude oil category."

Does anyone know just how much liquid this statistical sleight-of-hand entails?

0.58-mbd

However, this shouldn't change the "all liquids" numbers if I read it right, just the categorization.

So, while really not off by more than around 1% (esp considering the 2005 hurricane impact), the EIA and IEA give slighly different impressions of the trend, possibly just error. I have still never seen a good justification for weighing one over the other. My preference would be to average them the way Stuart used to do. My bottom line is things are close enough that the unknowns greatly exceed any apparent trends and no conclusions can yet be based on production data. As long as supply is not an issue (inventories in US grew last week) we can't distinguish production capacity/voluntary cutbacks/production decline factors.