Light, sweet crude for April delivery gained 13 cents to $61.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in afternoon trading, after earlier rising as high as $61.75. Friday's closing price of $61.14 was the highest since Dec. 22.

April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 24 cents to $61.12 a barrel on Monday.

Nymex heating oil prices rose less than 1 cent to $1.7539 a gallon while natural gas futures fell 9.3 cents to $7.662 per 1,000 cubic feet.

U.S. inventory figures released last Thursday showed a larger-than-expected decline in distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, as well as a drop in gasoline inventories.

Several analysts are forecasting a decline in stockpiles of heating oil when the government issues its weekly inventory report on Wednesday, said Jason Schenker, an economist with Wachovia Corp. However, Schenker said he expects the drop to be much smaller compared with the prior week.