Natural gas and crude oil prices edged up Monday on expectations of colder weather in major U.S. markets.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose 10 cents to $59.10 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery on the ICE Futures exchange inched up 2 cents to $58.43 a barrel.

Natural gas futures gained nearly 17 cents to $7.644 per 1,000 cubic feet.

"The weather is what's the most urgent, short-term issue here," said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets. "Over the weekend, the weather forecast became a lot colder for the six to 10 day period as well as the 11 to 15 day period."

Colder-than-normal temperatures blanketed the Northeast and Midwest on Monday and were expected to linger through Feb. 18, according to the National Weather Service. On Monday, temperatures registered in the single-digits and teens from Maryland to Maine, while many states in the Midwest were experiencing below zero temperatures with dangerous wind chills.

The Northeast accounts for 80 percent of U.S. heating oil consumption, while the Midwest is the bulk of the natural gas market. Heating oil futures rose half a cent to $1.6890 a gallon.

Oil prices had fallen as low as $49.90 a barrel last month after an unseasonably warm January.

Monday's gain in oil prices comes after Friday's rally that saw prices rise $1.72 to settle at $59.02 a barrel on winter weather concerns and supply worries driven by a second round of OPEC production cuts. That was the highest close since it finished at $61.05 on the last trading day of 2006.