As confidence in the economic recovery gained strength, the price of Crude oil headed closer to $82 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.

It was noted by the U. S. Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book report that there is continued improvement in the economy. Last week, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development said composite leading indicators for the OECD group rose to 0.8 percent in January. Their strongest one-day gain in two weeks was posted by U. S. markets on Friday.

Adding 24 cents, April delivery light, sweet crude in New York ended at $81.74, with prices heading up after a recent decline from $82.41. Though, 0.0018 cents were shed by heating oil prices to end at $2.1037 per gallon. Prices of reformulated gasoline lost 0.0092 cents to $2.28 per gallon. Henry Hub natural gas prices rose 0.045 cents to $4.572 per million British thermal units.

AAA further reported that at the pump, the national average price for unleaded gasoline was $2.753 per gallon Monday, up from Sunday's $2.747. (With Inputs from Agencies)