NEW YORK, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. crude oil futures closed higher for the third consecutive day at $95.84 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in light trading Wednesday.

The per-barrel price rose $1.84, to $95.97, the highest in a month, after closing at $93.15 per barrel in a holiday-shortened trading session Monday. Crude oil hit a record $99.29 a barrel on Nov. 21. Brent Crude oil prices rose $1.24 to $93.94 a barrel.

Heating oil rose 4.65 cents at $2.6412 per gallon and natural gas was virtually unchanged at $7.037 per million British thermal units.

Reformulated gasoline blendstock for January was up 6.86 cents at $2.4526 per gallon.

The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $2.973 Wednesday, down from $2.974 Monday, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report said.