Crude holding the longer term uptrend. Bull flag currently?

Crude 3 month chart

Crude1year chart below

Crude 5 year chart below

Crude10 year chart below

Unleaded Gasoline Price Charts(not as strong as crude or heating oil): Uptrend on longer term price chart......bull flag short term(or top?)

3 month                 

1 Year                

5 year........are we headed back to the highs?

10 Year                

Here are the gas prices at the pump:

USA National Gas Price Heat Map from GasBuddy:

https://www.gasbuddy.com/GasPriceMap?z=4

Weekly US ending stocks of crude oil. Peaked in March 2017 and have been falling sharply since then. Now the lowest in 3.5 years:

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRSTUS1&f=W

Weekly ending stocks for unleaded gasoline. Barely peaked in Feb 2017 but have not dropped much...........similar this month to July 2017...still fairly high:

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WGTSTUS1&f=W

Weekly US ending stocks for distillate fuel oil(heating oil-especially used in the Northeast). Peaked in Feb 2017 and have PLUNGED to the lowest in 4 years and almost the lowest in 10 years:

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDISTUS1&f=W

  By Jim_M - July 30, 2018, 1:58 p.m.            

Even if crude stays at the price it is at, a long roll will net you about $2k a month on 1 contract.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

                By metmike - July 30, 2018, 2:18 p.m.            

Good point Jim!

Crude for the front month is priced higher than back months...........this is an inverted price structure and considered bullish. Contango (sounds like a Spanish dance).

Normal backwardation is when prices are higher in the back months. 

Contango and Normal Backwardation

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/contango_backwardation.asp

• Contango is when the futures price is above the expected future spot price. Because the futures price must converge on the expected future spot price, contango implies futures prices are falling over time as new information brings them into line with the expected future spot price.
• Normal backwardation is when the futures price is below the expected future spot price. This is desirable for speculators who are net long in their positions: they want the futures price to increase. So, normal backwardation is when the futures prices are increasing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhQNRsH3uc

From the EIA:

Short-Term Energy Outlook

Release Date: August 7, 2018

Global liquid fuels

• Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $74 per barrel (b) in July, largely unchanged from the average in June. EIA expects Brent spot prices will average $72/b in 2018 and $71/b in 2019. EIA expects West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices will average about $6/b lower than Brent prices in 2018 and in 2019. NYMEX WTI futures and options contract values for November 2018 delivery that traded during the five-day period ending August 2, 2018, suggest a range of $54/b to $84/b encompasses the market expectation for November WTI prices at the 95% confidence level. 
• U.S. regular gasoline retail prices averaged $2.85 gallon (gal) in July, down 4 cents/gal from the average in June. EIA expects that 2018 monthly average gasoline prices peaked in May and forecasts prices will remain relatively flat in the coming months, averaging $2.83/gal in September. EIA expects regular gasoline retail prices to average $2.76/gal in 2018 and in 2019. 
• EIA estimates that U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in July, up 47,000 b/d from June. EIA forecasts that U.S. crude oil production will average 10.7 million b/d in 2018, up from 9.4 million b/d in 2017, and will average 11.7 million b/d in 2019.
• EIA forecasts total global liquid fuels inventories to decrease by 0.3 million b/d in 2018 compared with 2017, followed by an increase of 0.3 million b/d in 2019. This outlook of relatively stable inventory levels over the forecast period contributes to a forecast of monthly average Brent crude oil prices remaining relatively stable between $70/b and $73/b, from August 2018 through the end of 2019.