United States Oil Fund, LP

What they do

USO issues limited partnership interests traded on NYSE Arca and invests primarily in Oil Futures Contracts on light, sweet crude oil, other crude oils, heating oil, gasoline, natural gas and other petroleum-based fuels traded on NYMEX, ICE Futures or other exchanges. It seeks daily percentage changes in per-share NAV to reflect daily percentage changes in the spot price of light, sweet crude oil delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma, as measured by the Benchmark Oil Futures Contract, plus interest earned on collateral holdings, less expenses. The Benchmark is the NYMEX near month contract that rolls over a five-day period each month into the next month contract. The fund is externally managed by its general partner, United States Commodity Funds LLC (USCF), a subsidiary of The Marygold Companies, Inc. (MGLD).

Revenue drivers

• Crude oil futures exposure (Benchmark Oil Futures Contract) — The core holding is the near-month NYMEX light, sweet crude oil futures contract that rolls monthly, and gains or losses on these Oil Futures Contracts are the dominant swing factor in reported revenue and net income.
• Collateral interest income — USO holds cash and equivalents ($1.35B at 2026-06-30) that earn interest, which is added to the objective return alongside futures performance.
• Other oil-related investments — To a lesser extent USO may hold cash-settled options on Oil Futures Contracts, forward contracts for oil, cleared swap contracts and OTC swaps based on oil prices, used for regulatory, risk-mitigation, liquidity or market-condition purposes.
• Monthly roll (contango/backwardation) — The five-day monthly roll from near month into next month does not generate fee revenue but materially affects returns versus a hypothetical direct crude oil investment.

Recent performance

Reported annual results have been highly volatile: revenue was $1.63B in 2021, $800.7M in 2022, negative $34.9M in 2023, $231.9M in 2024 and negative $56.2M in 2025, with net income of $1.60B, $785.2M, negative $46.0M, $221.1M and negative $64.7M over the same years. Operating cash flow followed a similar path: $1.87B (2021), $871.9M (2022), negative $12.8M (2023), $175.7M (2024) and negative $21.9M (2025). Recent quarterly revenue was $25.6M in 2025-09-30, negative $53.3M in 2025-12-31, $986.4M in 2026-03-31 and negative $362.0M in 2026-06-30. At 2026-06-30 the fund reported total assets of $1.90B, total liabilities of $150.4M and cash and equivalents of $1.35B.

Strategy

USO states its objective is for daily percentage changes in per-share NAV to reflect daily percentage changes in the spot price of light, sweet crude oil delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma as measured by the Benchmark Oil Futures Contract, plus interest earned on collateral, less expenses. It seeks to achieve this so that the average daily percentage change in NAV over any 30 successive valuation days is within plus/minus 10% of the average daily percentage change in the Benchmark price over the same period. USO invests primarily in Oil Futures Contracts and, to a lesser extent, other oil-related investments such as cash-settled options, forwards and cleared or OTC swaps, in each case for regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, liquidity or market-condition reasons. The general partner, USCF, holds full management control under the Seventh Amended and Restated LP Agreement dated December 15, 2017. The fund's disclosures repeatedly note its objective is not for NAV or share price to equal the dollar spot price of crude oil or any particular futures contract, nor to reflect any contract's percentage change over periods longer than one day.

Risks

• Contango and backwardation — USO states that natural market forces called contango and backwardation may impact and have impacted total return relative to a hypothetical direct investment in crude oil, and likely will continue to affect the relationship between its share price and spot crude prices.
• Single-commodity concentration — The fund's exposure is concentrated in crude oil and other petroleum-based futures rather than a diversified portfolio, so its results depend on oil market moves.
• Tracking objective tolerance — Because USO can meet its objective even with deviations between daily NAV changes and Benchmark price changes so long as the 30-valuation-day average is within plus/minus 10%, investors may not receive one-for-one daily exposure.
• External management and related-party dependence — USCF has full management control, USCF is a subsidiary of USCF Investments, Inc. and ultimately The Marygold Companies, Inc., and the fund's operations depend on that manager and its affiliates.

Outlook

The filings provided do not include specific forward guidance on future revenue, NAV or crude oil prices. USO's stated objective remains daily percentage tracking of the Benchmark Oil Futures Contract over 30 successive valuation days within plus/minus 10%, plus collateral interest less expenses. Management notes contango and backwardation may continue to affect total return relative to direct crude oil exposure, and cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to market, regulatory and geopolitical uncertainties including the Russia-Ukraine war and conflicts in the Middle East.