Crude oil prices ended above 61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYME) Friday, the last trading day of 2006.

Light sweet crude for February delivery rose 52 cents to 61.05 a barrel on the NYME. February Brent at London's ICE Futures exchange gained 19 cents at to 60.86 a barrel.

Crude oil prices have experienced wide-ranged surge this year, as light sweet crude hit historic high of 78.40 dollars per barrel in New while Brent North Sea crude reached 78.64 dollars per barrel in London.

The prices fell down after summer due to high levels of U.S. energy inventories and unusual warm winter.

According to latest statistics,the average oil price of this year is about 66 dollars a barrel, almost 10 dollars higher than 2005.

Source: Xinhua