Oil Prices Continue Climb

Crude and heating oil prices kept climbing this morning, paring losses posted over the weekend and early today.  The price of crude was up 3.4% to $48.07 a barrel at 10:10 am eastern time, and the price of heating oil had risen 0.4%.

The cause of rising prices is a bit unclear, as recent economic news has been decidedly negative, led by this morning’s announcements by European companies ING and Philips that they would cut thousands of jobs.  Growing faith in OPEC’s dedication to its announced production cuts seems to be the only factor supporting oil prices today.  However, one oil dealer observed that “crude was weakening in response to a further slide in U.S. natural gas, which was down more than 2 percent,” CNBC.com reported.

HEAT USA price experts confirmed that the expected large price increase in today’s retail heating oil prices.  They expressed a hope that what appear to be inflated oil prices will fall later in the day.

HEAT USA Price Report
Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: UP $0.10
Morning projection (for Tuesday’s average price per gallon): UP $0.02