Oil prices moved above $74 a barrel Monday, the Associated Press reported. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for December delivery was up 54 cents to $74.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 58 cents to settle at $73.97 on Friday. Trading volume was thin as markets in the U.S. and U.K. were closed for holidays. In other Nymex trading in June contracts, heating oil rose 1.28 cents to $2.0173 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.04 cents to $2.0370 a gallon. Natural gas was up 1.6 cents at $4.357 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, the Brent crude July contact was up 61 cents to $74.63 on the ICE futures exchange.