Oil Soars 20% Ahead of Expiration

The setup also puts companies that need raw crude oil in a defensive position relative to speculative traders who can afford to hold raw crude oil in front of companies and demand the most attractive sales price. Most other futures markets have converted to cash-settled models in order to prevent this power from being abused.

Elsewhere, energy stocks mostly advanced Monday, although stock traders were ultimately unmoved by the bull-run raging in the commodity pits. BP (BP Quote) climbed 1.1% to $55.16, Conoco (COP Quote) and Chevron (CVX Quote) both slid fractionally to $77.72 and $87.33 respectively, Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A Quote) gained almost 2% to $63.60, and Exxon Mobil (XOMN Quote) fell 0.9% to $78.88.

U.S Oil Fund (USO Quote), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the daily performance of the spot WTI contract, rose $4.99, or 6%, to close at $87.62 -- well below the performance of the spot WTI futures contract on Monday.

Michael Seneadza, a professional energy trader and publisher of the blog "Trader Mike," said that USO's underperformance of WTI likely occurred because the ETF had already rolled out of its positions in the spot contract. The U.S. Oil Fund is actively managed and invests in a number of other energy products besides WTI spot futures contracts.