Crude prices up on EU bailout for Greece

The price of crude oil was higher Monday after it was announced that the European Union has finalized a bailout package worth almost $1 trillion dollars, after prices declined by 14 percent last week on concerns surrounding the Greek economy’s recent problems.

Also helping push prices higher was the latest data on oil imports by China, which showed that the Asian nation imported 5.165 million barrels per day in April, a record, 31 percent over imports in the same month last year.

June contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.40 to $76.51 per barrel at around 1:30 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude had added $1.63 to $79.90 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Prices for WTI were up even more earlier in the session.

Nymex June gasoline futures and heating oil futures were each up 3 cents in afternoon trade, to $2.16 per gallon and $2.11 per gallon respectively, while June natural gas was 21 cents higher to $4.22 per million British thermal units.

At-the-pump prices for gasoline in the United States was down 2.1 cents since Thursday as it dropped 0.6 cent overnight to $2.908 per gallon on average across the nation, leaving it still 4.5 cents higher than last month and 79.5 cents above prices last year at this time.