Oil prices briefly shot above US$63 a barrel Thursday in a rally that brokers attributed to technical trading, coupled with buying prompted by the approach of the Northern Hemisphere winter, AP reported. Natural gas futures also climbed following the release of government data that showed a net withdrawal of natural gas from domestic underground storage facilities. Light sweet crude for January delivery rose 62 cents to US$63.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent futures rose 42 cents to US$63.49 on London's ICE exchange. In other Nymex trading, natural gas futures rose 6 cents to US$8.93 per 1,000 cubic feet. In its latest weekly report, the U.S. Energy Department said underground storage of natural gas declined by 32 billion cubic feet last week to 3.23 trillion cubic feet. That is still more than 7 percent above the five-year average for this time of year. Heating oil futures rose by more than half a penny to $1.8010 per gallon, while unleaded gas futures were steady at $1.6706 a gallon.
