Crude oil prices jump Thursday

NEW YORK, July 10 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices jumped in New York Thursday on renewed threats of violence in supply regions.

Threats of violence in Nigeria helped push prices higher, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"People are looking for middle distillate grades and if there are problems in Nigeria there are not so many alternatives," Ehsan Ul-Haq, head of research at JBC Energy told the Journal.

On the exchange Thursday, crude oil prices rose $4.62 to $141.21 per barrel. The price of heating oil fell 0.0089 cents in late trading to $4.0285 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0121 cents to $3.4988 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 0.11 cents to $12.41 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline fell slightly, down 0.004 cents to $4.104, AAA said.