New York, Feb 19 (AP) Oil prices continued to rise today as a refinery strike in France and worries over Iran's nuclear program suggested petroleum supplies may tighten in the future.
Benchmark crude added 32 cents to USD 79.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices have increased more than 11 per cent in the past two weeks.
Energy prices dipped overnight after the Federal Reserve announced that it will bump up the so-called "discount" lending rate. That sent the dollar to its highest level since May.
Crude, which is priced in US currency, tends to fall in price as the dollar rises and makes oil barrels tougher to buy for investors holding foreign money.
A Labour Department report today morning though said consumer prices excluding food and energy fell in January for the first time since December 1982.
