Natural Gas Moves Higher

However, the inability of the member countries in the OPEC oil cartel to adhere to production quotas have alleviated some of that pressure on crude supplies, as have traders who are beginning to lower their price targets for petroleum products as the winter heating season comes to a close.

Analysts said that a new warm weather system now traversing the country from the West Coast is already reducing traders' focus on fuel inventories.

In the equities market, Suncor Energy's(SU Quote) stock was downgraded by Friedman Billings Ramsey to underperform from market perform. Amir Arif, energy analyst at the firm, wrote in an email that Suncor has notable downside risk to falling oil prices, and that the potential for upward movements in its stock is limited.

FBR lowered its price target for Suncor from $85 to $75. Regardless, the rally in energy commodities left Suncor's stock up 28 cents to $72.72.

British natural gas producer BG Group(BRG Quote) announced that its earnings in the fourth quarter fell 18% to 410 million British pounds. However, the company said it expects its production to increase between 5% and 7% through 2009. BG Group traded 4.6% higher at $71.41.

Shares of Marathon Oil(MRO Quote), the fourth-largest integrated energy company in the U.S., jumped 3.3% to $92.18 after announcing two new deepwater oil discoveries off the coast of Angola. The wells are expected to produce more than 11,000 barrels of oil per day for the firm.