Crude oil price spikes up $2 a barrel

New York -- Crude oil prices spiked up $2 a barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday morning, pushing toward the $100 a barrel mark.

The balance of power has shifted toward oil producers, analysts said, indicating that industry giants, such as Italy's Eni S.p.A. would need to renegotiate production sharing agreements with exporting countries.

Crude oil prices jumped $2 per barrel to $97.50 per barrel Tuesday morning.

Other commodities prices joined in the climb.

Heating oil prices gained 7.15 cents per gallon Tuesday morning to $2.7184 per gallon.

The price of reformulated gasoline blendstock climbed 6.67 cents per gallon to $2.5605 per gallon.

The price of natural gas gained 21 cents to $8.87 per million British thermal units.

The national average price for a gallon of unleaded, in a delayed response to the climbing price of crude oil, increased Tuesday to $3.032 per gallon, up from $3.014 Monday, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.