Oil hovers near $91 a barrel

Crude oil prices slid to less than $91 per barrel Thursday in New York but were in the upper half of the recent trading range with support from a winter storm. The first winter storm in the U.S. Northeast blanketed the region with snow and ensured demand for heating oil for the near term. Weather forecasts indicate the cold spell will remain for a while. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for February delivery gave up 25 cents to $90.73 per barrel. Home heating oil for February added 0.48 cents to $3.0405 a gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline shed 1.17 cents to $2.7768 a gallon. Natural gas prices lost 0.58 cents to $3.367 per million British thermal units. At the pump, AAA reported the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline hit $3.261 per gallon, up from Wednesday's $3.247.