NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (APP): Crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange as speculators moved to buy it, attracted by oil’s rapid gains.In the past two weeks, oil prices have gained over $8 per barrel and three times topped the $100 a barrel mark, including Tuesday.
The price of crude reached $100.90 Tuesday afternoon, a gain of 59 cents on the day.
Heating oil prices gained 0.1 cents in late trading to reach $2.8160 per gallon.
Petrol prices, which for months lagged the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts fearing they could hit $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily and oil closed at an all-time high on Tuesday of $100.88 a barrel.
The depth of the U.S. economic problems became clearer Tuesday with the release of figures showing that prices at the producer level rose 1 percent in January, driven in large measure by energy costs. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 7.4 percent, the worst producer price inflation in the United States since 1981.
The price of reformulated blendstock gasoline declined 0.05 cents in late trading to drop down to $2.550 per gallon.
Natural gas prices also declined, down 2.3 cents to $9.183 per million British thermal units.