Cold Drives Energy Commodity Prices Up

A weather-driven spike in heating oil demand propped up commodities prices, analysts said, and crude oil prices gained sharply Monday to more than $99 a barrel.

Crude oil has gained in seven of the last eight trading sessions and broke the $100 a barrel mark twice during the past week. Crude oil prices gained Monday, advancing 57 cents on the day, reaching $99.28 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Heating oil priced gained 0.02 cents late Monday to $2.7855 per gallon.

The price of reformulated blendstock gasoline also gained 0.02 cents late Monday and reached $2.5421 per gallon.

Natural gas prices dropped 1.4 cents to $9.172 per million British thermal units.

The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed slightly Monday to $3.137, up from Friday’s average of $3.134 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.