Oil Prices Rising As Natural Gas Prices Are Falling

Light, sweet crude oil for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 1.3%, or $1.25 higher, at $99.58 a barrel. ICE North Sea Brent crude settled up 72 cents at $110.58 a barrel. Heating oil for February delivery settled up 2.14 cents, at $3.0098 a gallon, while reformulated gasoline blendstock was 0.65 lower, at $2.7779 a gallon. Conversely, gasoline futures have fallen 4.75 cents over the past three days, as demand recently hit 11-year lows.

U.S. natural-gas inventories stand at 3.29 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a record for this time of year. Last week, gas prices fell as low as $2.322 per million BTUs, the lowest settlement price in 10 years. (WSJ, 1/23/2012, WSJ, 1/23/2012))