The bullish stories keep coming but oil closes lower for the forth day in a row. The Bulls have got to be wondering what it is going to take to reignite the bullish passions in the energy complex. You have winter storms blanketing the country, Turkey bombing Kurdish rebels in Iraq, Nigeria's rebel group MEND calling for unity among factions so they can cripple the nation's oil industry and reports that Mexico's three oil export ports in the Gulf of Mexico was closed due to a storm. All of that and the crude market still could not close higher. Perhaps the reason was the one bearish story from OPEC that came as a bit of a surprise. Chakib Khelil, Algeria's oil minister, who is going to the new President of OPEC, opened the door to the possibility of a production or quota increase at the February meeting. Mr. Khelil was quoted as saying “that right now, the oil market is well supplied, stock s are high, and we are facing a winter that is probably going to be harsh. But also we are facing a situation in the world economy that is probably improving. I would not exclude the possibility of increasing production if the market wants it… But for the moment, I think we have sufficient supply.� Now why Mr. Khelil is optimistic on the economy or why he thinks the winter is going to be harsh remains to be seen but he probably helped oil overlook the some of the other bullish stories. Still the market mounted a comeback off the lows and failed to close below 90 a barrel. That in part could be reflecting those bullish stories or the fact that the market is slowing down for the holiday and is just floating back and forth in a range.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “A pentagon report will accuse Iran of continuing to funnel weapons and training in to Iraq, adding fuel to the debate among US policy makers about whether Iran deserves ant credit for the Steep decline in Iran's Violenceâ€� Some are speculating a quid pro quo In other words, the US intelligence Department says that Iran stopped pursing a nuclear weapon in 2003 in exchange for not esqualting the violence in Iraq,. The US also agreed to not balk at the Russian nuclear fuel that Russia sent to Iran.   I spoke to one person that sp the Sign up for your free trial of Alaronenergies and get signed up for the Phil Flynn Blast. Call me today at 800-935-6487 or email me at pflynn@alaron.com

Sold February crude at 9200 stop 9480

Sell February Heating oil at 26300 stop 26750

Sold January RBOB at 23500 leave stop at 24500

 Long January Natural Gas at 703 stops 680