Oil prices rose Thursday amid market jitters over Iran’s nuclear development and on traders’ convictions that economic growth will cause energy consumption to rise.
Light sweet crude for February delivery rose 71 cents to $64.65 a barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil futures rose 1.34 cents to $1.7405 a gallon, while gasoline rose a penny to $1.7444 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell by 26.8 cents to $8.97 per 1,000 cubic feet. February Brent crude rose $1.01 to $63.18 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
