In the meantime, base oil sources are anxiously awaiting January business to get underway. Both the buy and sell sides say there are already positive signs which point toward customer orders on the rise for first quarter of 2010.

Sources reflect back to activity in the early part of this year, when requirements were very disappointing. They said that overall demand at that time shrank by an estimated 30 percent compared to business in the previous five to six years.

Looking upstream, crude oil values continued to pick up steam, jumping to near the $80 per barrel mark this week. A few analysts suspect that oil prices could climb even higher if geopolitical conditions worsen in the Middle East. They said that a key concern at present is the al Qaeda group in Yemen and their dislike of the Saudi Arabian government. Suspicions that there could be an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline are high. If an attack does occur, it would have an immediate impact of oil prices, driving them higher, analysts believe.

At the close of the Tuesday, Dec. 29, NYMEX session, front-month light sweet crude futures ended the day at $78.87 per barrel, a gain of $4.47 from the week earlier settlement at $74.40/bbl.

Carolyn L. Green, based in Houston, can be reached directly at carolynlgreen@gmail.com.

Historic U.S. posted base oil prices and WTI and Brent crude spot prices are available for purchase in Excel format.