Oil prices reach new high for 2009 as dollar falls

NEW YORK


Benchmark crude for April delivery surged $3.47, or 7 percent, to settle at $51.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices hit $52.25 earlier in the day, a price last seen on Dec. 1.

Crude prices have increased 11.6 percent since OPEC ministers met in Vienna on Sunday. The group said it would not cut production again immediately, but there is growing consensus that the millions of barrels taken off the market already each day are starting to balance a supply and demand picture that has been skewed for months.

AP