Oil prices ended 2009 with a bang, surging by about $10 a barrel in the final two weeks as the country's crude supplies started to shrink.
Benchmark crude for February delivery added 8 cents to settle at $79.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude barrels are 71 percent more expensive than they were at the beginning of the year.
Prices have rallied since March, moving opposite the dollar. Oil barrels are priced in dollars, and when the dollar slumped this year, crude contracts became easier to buy for investors with foreign money.
Oil got an additional boost in December as temperatures dropped and home-owners cranked up the heat. The country's oil stockpile fell by 10.1 million barrels in December, and oil prices perked up in response.
They pulled pump prices higher as well. Retail gas prices finished the year with six straight days of price increases.
The US average added 1.6 cents overnight to $2.639, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 1.2 cents more expensive than a month ago and $1.022 more expensive than the same time last year.
ADI Price at posting:
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