Bad weather in US raises oil prices

Crude oil prices were higher Monday as much of the East Coast of the United States tried to recover from a storm that brought several feet of new snow to some areas and ahead of another storm which is expected to bring even more snow and cold weather.

The National Weather service has forecast below normal temperatures for the next six to ten days from Florida to Maine.

March contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added 70 cents to $71.89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude was up 55 cents to $70.14 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Besides gains on weather concerns, prices were also pushed higher after a militant group in Nigeria claimed over the weekend that they had attacked a pipeline operated in the country by Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSA, RDSB), but Shell said on Sunday that it does not know of any attack.

Nymex natural gas futures were lower, falling by 9 cents to $5.42 per million British thermal units despite the cold weather in the US as stockpiles remained above the five year average, but March gasoline and heating oil futures both added about a cent to $1.89 per gallon each.

US retail prices for gasoline, however, dropped 0.5 cent overnight to $2.652 per gallon on average, 8.5 cents lower than last month but still substantially higher than motorists were paying at the pump last year.