Oil prices jumped above $99 a barrel Monday Feb. 28, 2011 in Asia as Libya's violent power struggle continued to disrupt crude output in the OPEC nation.

Violent protests in Oman also raised fears political upheaval could impact other crude exporters.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up $1.51 at $99.39 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 60 cents to settle at $97.88 on Friday Feb. 26, 2011. Read more »

Gas prices have increased nearly 17 cents a gallon in the past week. And analysts expect prices to continue higher, following a sharp rise in the price of crude oil.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose 4.3 cents to $3.33, motorist group AAA said Saturday Feb.26, 2011. That marks the fourth day in a row that prices have risen, and brings the national average to the highest level since October 2008.

Gas prices were highest in Hawaii, where drivers paid $3.761 a gallon, on average. Wyoming had the lowest gas prices at roughly, $3.032 a gallon. Read more »

Oil prices hovered below $86 a barrel Monday Feb.14, 2011 in Asia as traders eye inflation and consumer demand numbers for signs higher commodity prices could be undermining global economic growth.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 5 cents at $85.53 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.15 to settle at $85.58 on Friday. Read more »

Oil giant BP announced its first annual loss for nearly two decades on Saturday Feb. 5, 2011, dragged down by a whopping US$41 billion ($54 billion) charge to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year which unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in history.

Despite fourth-quarter profits of US$4.4 billion, the company recorded an annual loss of US$4.6 billion, compared with profits of US$14 billion in 2009. Read more »