Crude oil prices surged to $81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, sustaining a rally that began a week ago.

Light, sweet crude prices added $2.34 cents to $81.01 per barrel. Heating oil prices rose 0.0538 cents to $2.0928 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline prices rose 0.0308 cents to $2.041 per gallon. Natural gas prices gave up 0.074 cents to $5.096 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.596 per gallon Wednesday, up from Tuesday's $2.577, AAA said.