Oil prices rose above $79 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, according to The Associated Press. Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 19 cents to $79.06 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 10 cents to settle at $78.87 on Tuesday. In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil rose 0.5 cent to $2.1075 gallon while gasoline added 1.2 cent to $2.0225 a gallon. In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose 33 cents to $77.97 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.