Crude oil holds near $100

Light, sweet crude oil for February delivery held steady overnight in New York, the pricing trend defining a new plateau near $100 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 11 cents to $99.76 per barrel a day after the Energy Information Administration said crude oil stockpiles rose by 3.9 million barrels to 327.5 million in the week ending Saturday. Energy prices have found support through the week on tensions in the Middle East, as Iran on Tuesday threatened to close a major shipping lane if it was hit with tougher sanctions over its alleged nuclear weapons program. Home heating oil prices added 1.03 cents to $2.9304 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline shed 0.92 cents to $2.6602 per gallon. Henry Hub natural gas prices lost 2.5 cents to $3.002 per million British thermal units. At the retail level, the national average price of unleaded gasoline rose to $3.269 per gallon Friday from Thursday's $3.254, AAA said.