Crude Prices Jump Over $1 Early Friday

The price of crude oil jumped more than $1 to $89.65 a barrel early Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The jump follows news that Exxon Mobile Corp. secured court orders to freeze $12 billion of Petroleos de Venezuela’s assets in the wake of a dispute over oil fields Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized in 2007. Production in the nationalized fields has slowed more than 1 million barrels a day since 2002.

Heating oil prices also rose early, up 2.08 cents to $2.4793 per gallon.

Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices gained 1.91 cents to $2.2869 per gallon.

Natural gas prices dropped 0.6 cents, to to $8.096 per million British thermal units on the exchange.

At the pump, the national average price of regular unleaded gasoline dropped to $2.966 per gallon from Thursday’s price of $2.972, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.