Oil Again Marches Higher

However, last year might be a bad one for extrapolating future energy demand because the weather was notably mild, according to Mary Novak, energy analyst at Global Insight. "The winter months in 2006 were surprisingly warm and the summer was surprisingly cool. The likelihood of that happening again is very small," Novak said.

Energy stocks finished the session mixed. The CBOE Oil Index was up 0.2% at 659.21. ConocoPhllips (COP Quote), Chevron (CVX Quote) and Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote) were all down fractionally.

Chinese oil firm PetroChina(PTR Quote) announced that it has found a new oil field off of the Chinese coast. The field is estimated to hold 2.2 billion barrels of oil, making it China's largest new oil find in a decade. Shares of PetroChina were trading up 7 cents at $114.80.

Suncor Energy (SU Quote) was upgraded by Deutsche Securities to buy from hold. Suncor advanced 3.5% to $76.84 on the news.

Matrix Research downgraded shares of E&P firm Stone Energy (SGY Quote) to strong sell from hold. However, shares were up a penny at $29.31.