Oil prices stayed above $82 a barrel Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May delivery was up 17 cents to $82.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, it peaked at $82.74. On Tuesday, the contract jumped $2.17 to settle at $82.17. In other Nymex trading in April contracts, heating oil rose 0.22 cents to $2.1210 a gallon, and gasoline was steady at $2.2613 a gallon. Natural gas fell 1 cent to $3.906 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude was up 8 cents at $81.25 on the ICE futures exchange.
