Benchmark crude for April delivery rose $1.16 to $79.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It went as high as $80.10 earlier in the day. The contract on Monday fell 96 cents to settle at $78.70.
Wholesale gasoline prices also increased. The April contract gained 4.01 cents at $2.1957 per gallon on the Nymex.
Oil prices have been drifting between $70 and $80 a barrel for most of the last eight months as crude demand remains weak in the US and other industrial countries coming out of the Great Recession. Prices often move higher in March as refiners switch to producing more expensive blends of gasoline to meet tougher pollution standards in effect for the spring and summer driving season between April and September.
“It is just going to be tough to force this market down this month,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates.
Oil analyst and trader Stephen Schork said investors like to buy oil at this time of the year, expecting gasoline prices to move higher. Investors also will be watching weekly US crude inventory data set to come out Wednesday, as well as the February unemployment report on Friday, as possible indicators of fuel demand.
Retail gasoline prices were flat, falling 0.2 cents overnight to a national average of $2.703 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Services.
