The stock market year 2022 turned quite a few investor strategies upside down.

Anyone who wanted to make an investment in shares by the beginning of the year, with which one could make their return practically in their sleep, simply invested in America's big tech stocks Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Co. The investment was hip, the courses actually only knew one direction and accordingly the return was good.

Then came the Ukraine war and everything else, the prices of the tech stocks loved by many investors went downhill (once).

With the Ukraine conflict, the perspective of many investors on the topic of sustainability, which had been important until then, also changed.

This suddenly receded into the background when it came to investments, and so quite a few market experts predicted a comeback for oil stocks in the spring - even though attempts were being made in Europe to get away from oil even more quickly because of the Ukraine conflict.

One who had invested in oil companies much earlier and added to his positions over the course of the first half of 2022 was Warren Buffett.

America's star investor had already started investing in the oil company Chevron at the end of 2020 and then consistently expanded this position.

Buffett made the same play at Occidental Petroleum.

Many Buffett fans may not have understood this.

Because Buffett is known for investing exclusively in assets with his investment company Berkshire Hathaway, which represent long-term positions in the portfolio.

But build up a position in oil stocks in the long term – where everyone exclusively favors renewable energies?

Oil stocks are among the top gainers of 2023

Warren Buffett did it – probably, as always, for purely fundamental reasons.

So far, the investment by the veteran of the stock market in oil stocks has paid off.

If you look at the price development of all companies listed in the broad S&P500 index, eight companies from the energy and oil sectors are among the top ten stocks over the year.

The absolute leader is the Buffett investment Occidental Petroleum.

Over the past twelve months, the price has climbed almost 130 percent.

Stocks such as EQT Corp., Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, Marathon Oil and Exxon Mobil follow in further places.

The Chevron competitor's share price has gained almost 80 percent in the same period.

Chevron shares, on the other hand, "only" increased by almost 58 percent.

The list goes on and on - twelve companies from the oil and gas sectors are represented in the top 20 of the S&P500 alone.

What will 2023 bring for oil stocks?

The question for the long-term investor is what will 2023 hold in terms of energy and oil prices?

One way of integrating the topic of oil stocks in the portfolio, but not focusing too much on individual stocks, would be to invest in derivatives.

On the one hand, various derivatives offer the opportunity to benefit from the development of oil prices.

Others are looking at oil and gas stocks.

The Vontobel Oil Strategy Index offers the opportunity to combine both approaches.

Depending on market conditions, the strategy index is either more heavily exposed to oil company stocks or related energy price futures.

The shares of the Vontobel Oil-Strategy Index are the stocks of the ten largest oil companies based in America or Canada in terms of market capitalization.

Looking to Warren Buffett as an investor, 2023 should continue to be a good year for oil stocks.

Oil major Chevron is currently the third-largest position in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, accounting for over eight percent of it.