Crude oil prices climb Thursday

New York -- Crude oil prices settled in midday trading Thursday before rising to a record by close of day on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude oil reached jumped 96 cents Thursday to a record $124.54 per barrel on speculative trading and supply worries.

The price of heating oil rose 0.0134 cents in late trading Thursday to $3.5232 per gallon. The price of reformulated gasoline blendstock rose 0.0074 cents on the exchange to $3.1452 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 0.005 cents to $11.268 per million British thermal units.

The price at the pump continued to climb, reaching a national average record $3.645 for a gallon of unleaded, up from Wednesday's price of $3.618 a gallon, 61 cents higher than the price from a year ago, AAA reported.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.