United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (NYSE: USL)

United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP is a Delaware limited partnership formed on June 27 2007. The fund operates as a commodity pool that issues shares traded on the NYSE Arca under the ticker USL. Its investment objective is for the daily percentage change in its per share net asset value to reflect the daily percentage change in the average price of the Benchmark Oil Futures Contracts plus interest earned on collateral holdings less expenses. To achieve this objective USL invests primarily in futures contracts for light sweet crude oil and other petroleum based fuels traded on the NYMEX ICE Futures and other exchanges and to a lesser extent in other oil related investments such as cleared swaps options and forward contracts.

The fund generates returns through interest income on the Treasuries and cash equivalents it holds as collateral for its futures positions and through changes in the market value of its Oil Interests. Interest earned on these short term government securities contributes to the net asset value while gains or losses from the futures options swaps and forward contracts drive the performance of the shares. USL does not charge a separate management fee to investors; instead its expenses are covered by the general partner USCF which is compensated from the fund's assets.

USL operates in the competitive landscape of commodity exchange traded products that provide exposure to crude oil prices. Its main competitors include the United States Oil Fund (USO) the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) and other energy focused exchange traded funds offered by various sponsors. The fund's distinguishing feature is its twelve month rolling futures strategy which seeks to reduce the impact of contango and backwardation on returns compared to a single month futures product. This approach aims to provide a more stable correlation with the spot price of crude oil over time while still offering liquidity and transparency through exchange traded shares.

The fund's shares are owned by a diverse group of retail and institutional investors who seek indirect exposure to crude oil price movements. These investors include individual traders financial advisors hedge funds and other market participants that use the product for speculation hedging or portfolio diversification. No specific customer names are disclosed in the filing but the description indicates a broad base of market participants.