Crude oil prices settled higher Friday, a day after climbing to the year's high of nearly $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The price of light, sweet crude rose 95 cents to 78.53 per barrel, the highest since October 2008. Heating oil prices added 1.16 cents to $2.0297 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline prices rose 3.44 cents to $1.9793 per gallon. Natural gas prices gained 0.29 cents to $4.781 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price for unleaded gasoline was $2.467 per gallon Friday, up from Thursday's $2.487, AAA said.