Oil prices rose to near $43 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, Associated Press reported. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was up 91 cents to $42.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore. The contract fell overnight $1.64 to settle at $42.07. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 3.26 cents to 97 cents. Heating oil gained 1.96 cents to $1.46 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery jumped 6.1 cents to 5.64 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, January Brent crude rose $1.04 to $42.57 on the ICE Futures exchange.