First the news was dire. the Iranians had seized an Iraqi oil well in a disputed border area. Prices immediately went up above $74. Facing a weekend where events could move prices even higher before the next trading session it was obvious that prices would go up. Then the news came out that the well had been seized a couple of weeks ago. Also traders noticed the dollar ascending. Thus crude settled only 45 cents higher than yesterday while gasoline was up 4.35 cents and distillate barely increased 0.3 cents.
As we are now approaching the end of the month with fewer trading days because of the Christmas and New Year holidays and likely slow trading on the eves of those two holidays, the contango effect of large inventory stock piles around the world has significantly lessened lately from more than $2 on the later month to less than $1.50 today.
It is interesting to note that crude made a moderate gain the past week of $3.46 or 8.23 cents a gallon while distillate in the coldest season only rose 4.9 cents to $1.955 as gasoline increased 6.24 cents to $1.8938.
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