NEW YORK ? Oil prices on Monday climbed to around $95 per barrel for the first time since early August on hopes that Greece will adopt the spending reforms it needs for an international bailout package and avoid default.
Benchmark crude rose 62 cents to $94.89 per barrel in New York, while Brent crude rose $2.02 to $113.99 in London.
Investors were relieved by the reduced chances of a default in Greece, which could have led to bank failures across the eurozone. That might have pushed the region's economy into recession and weakened demand for oil.
Still, economists remain wary. Their attention is now focused on the wobbly economy of Italy, which also faces huge debts and slow growth.
"This whole eurozone thing is far from resolved," independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.
Besides the political developments in Europe, analysts said investors are also paying closer attention to shrinking oil, gasoline and diesel supplies in parts of the U.S.
The government reported last week that total petroleum stocks are down 62.6 percent from a year ago and they're 5.6 percent lower than the five-year average. Supplies are falling as refineries import less oil while shipping more diesel and gasoline overseas. Shrinking supplies support higher prices.
At the pump, retail gasoline prices fell less than a penny Monday to a national average of $3.407 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 4 cents to $3.1059 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 4 cents to $2.7073 per gallon. Natural gas fell 7 cents to $3.71 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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