Oil prices crept above $40 a barrel Monday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for April delivery rose 40 cents to $40.43 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 15 cents to settle at $40.03 on Friday. The March contract expired Friday at $38.94 a barrel. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures were steady at $1.07 a gallon. Heating oil rose 0.33 cent to $1.20 a gallon, while natural gas for March delivery jumped 1.7 cents to $4.02 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent prices rose 35 cents to $42.24 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
