According to The New York Times :
Oil prices settled just below $57 a barrel yesterday — a gain of almost $3 — and the price of natural gas soared more than 11 percent on expectations of more arctic weather in the United States.
Light crude for March delivery jumped $2.96, to settle at $56.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices reached as high as $57.05 during trading before falling back.
The March contract for Brent crude oil at the ICE Futures exchange in London settled at $56.39 a barrel, up $2.71.
Natural gas soared more than 80 cents, or 11.6 percent, to settle at $7.740 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York exchange.
“People were digging their spurs into it; this is just a lot of people running to get out of the way of the rally,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets. “There wasn’t a lot of foresight, not a lot of calculation to it. It’s just a reaction to the cold weather.”
Seven-day forecasts yesterday predicted that temperatures would dip below zero in the Midwest, the heart of the natural gas market, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at the Alaron Trading Corporation in Chicago.
Colder-than-normal temperatures are also expected through mid-February in the Northeast, which is responsible for 80 percent of the country’s heating oil consumption.
Heating oil rose nearly 9 cents, to settle at $1.6380 a gallon.
In other New York trading, gasoline futures rose 8 cents, to settle at $1.5213 a gallon.
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