Oil prices surge to new 2009 high

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Oil prices surged to a 2009 high Wednesday after a government report showed that unused crude being placed in storage slowed a bit last week.

Benchmark crude for June delivery rose $1.94 to $55.78 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, levels not seen since November. Prices reached as high as $56.47 per barrel.

Demand for energy because of the recession has been decimated, leaving storage facilities more bloated than in any year since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Prices for crude, and gasoline, have plunged as a result, providing a break to everyone from industrial companies to consumers, though that must be taken in the context of shuttered factories and layoffs.