Oil rose to near $82 a barrel Tuesday in Asia, according to The Associated Press. Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 16 cents to $81.67 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed $2.15 to settle at $81.51 on Monday. Oil has surged about 15 percent since mid-December. In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil rose 0.59 cent to $2.196 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.01 cents to $2.11 a gallon. In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose 34 cents to $80.46 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
