Phila.-area gas prices stable

Gas prices have been as mobile as traffic in the region, with the Philadelphia area's average at $3.21 since last Friday.

South Jersey's average was still $3.01, unchanged since Jan. 19.

The national average was still $3.10, where it's been for two days.

The diesel average was up 1 cent, to $3.67, in the five-county Philly area, but was unchanged in South Jersey ($3.34) and in the country as a whole ($3.43).

Meanwhile, oil prices hovered below $86 a barrel, dragged lower by high U.S. inventories and weak economic and earnings news.

Early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery was up 1 cent at $85.65 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract lost $1.69 to settle at $85.64 a barrel on Thursday and is down from nearly $93 a barrel last week as evidence accumulated that demand isn't strong enough to sustain crude prices at those levels.

This week's release data from the U.S. Energy Department said supplies of oil and gasoline rose more than expected last week.

In other Nymex trading for February contracts, heating oil rose 1.61 cents to $2.6707 a gallon and gasoline added 1.84 cents to $2.40 a gallon. Natural gas futures for March delivery fell 5.3 cents to $4.266 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude was up 44 cents at $97.83 on the ICE futures exchange.

"The biggest mystery on the oil market remains the remarkably wide price gap between the two main benchmark types of crude oil, WTI and Brent," said analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, referring to West Texas Intermediate, the type of oil used as a U.S. benchmark. "We believe that both prices are distorted at present, WTI to the downside and Brent to the upside."