Crude oil prices up

NEW YORK, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices jumped Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as investors anticipated a possible OPEC production cut announcement.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries were scheduled to meet Saturday in Cairo.

"There just weren't that many traders willing to pile up a big short position ahead of the Thanksgiving break and ahead of this OPEC meeting," Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective told The Wall Street Journal.

Crude prices gained $4.03 Wednesday to $54.80 per barrel. Heating oil prices rose 0.0422 cents to $1.741 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline rose 0.0875 cents to $1.824 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 0.424 cents to $6.81 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline fell 0.017 cents from Tuesday's figure to $1.868 Wednesday, AAA said.