Oil's massive slide may soon be coming to an end, with the commodity staying near its current price or going a "tad" lower, investor Dennis Gartman told CNBC Friday.
"I doubt that we're going to see a great good deal lower on oil prices from here. The vast majority of the move is probably well behind us, thankfully," he said in an interview with "Closing Bell."
On Friday, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures ended the session up 4.45 percent at $56.52 a barrel while benchmark hovered around $62, gaining 5 percent.
On a weekly basis, though, Brent and U.S. crude were headed for a fourth straight week of losses and both have lost roughly 50 percent since their June highs.
Gartman has been watching the term structures for crude futures for an indication on oil's direction. While signs had been bearish, with the front months leading the way down, he said over the past couple days the term structure has started to move in the other direction.
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However, that doesn't mean he's turning bullish on the commodity, just less bearish.
"The time for being overtly bearish of crude oil has probably passed. I think the time for being bullish of crude oil lies a long way into the future," Gartman said.
He also disagreed with President Barack Obama's assessment of the Keystone XL Pipeline. During his press conference Friday, the president said the pipeline, which would transport crude from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, would only nominally benefit Americans.
An approval of the pipeline would have an "amazing response," Gartman said. "It's exactly what needs to be done. … It can only be beneficial to us and to our Canadian friends in the north.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said his party's first act in the new Republican-controlled Senate would be to pass a bill fast-tracking approval of the $8 billion project.
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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary agrees the pipeline ultimately "makes a lot of sense," but thinks it will not get approved during Obama's remaining time in office.
"There's no upside of him driving this thing through," he said. "I'm going to assume its dead meat for the next two years."
As for oil prices, he sees them lower in the New Year.
"I thank January will see a new $55 handle on oil. I'm sorry, that's where it's going."
—Reuters contributed to this story.