Quietly, Ever So Quietly ...

.... oil prices are moving back up.

And regular readers of the blog know why. What a great country!

CNBC is reporting:

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures have surged to a one-month high on expectations for the first decline in weekly U.S. crude supplies in nearly three months as well as news that a key pipeline will begin service at the start of the year, relieving the glut of oil in the middle part of the country.

NYMEX WTI oil futures climbed more than $2 a barrel to reach a session high of $96.04 a barrel. Front-month WTI futures have not settled above the $96-a-barrel mark since Oct. 31. Brent crude oil futures rose more modestly, up about $1 to a session high of $112.70 a barrel.

News that TransCanada's 700,000 barrel a day pipeline taking crude from the main physical delivery point for the WTI oil futures in Cushing, OK, to Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf Coast will begin service on Jan. 3 helped to spark Tuesday's move in the benchmark U.S. oil price.

We've been waiting for this for several months now. The pipeline was originally set for the "line fill" to begin the first week of November. That week came and went without much being said. I was a bit perplexed; no explanation.

Then RBN Energy started talking about it and at least one other source said that the "line fill" should be going on as "we speak" and that the first delivery of oil down the Keystone XL South, from Cushing, OK, to the Gulf Coast should occur before the end of the year, though this story now says service will begin January 3, 2014.

This is a huge story, and it's playing out as expected.

I remember all the Texas ranchers saying that pipeline would never be built. And the Texas judge who tried to stop it.