Crude oil prices remained steady at near $99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday morning. West Texas Intermediate crude oil added 14 cents to $99.36 per barrel. Reformulated gasoline blendstock for January gained 0.01 cents to $2.8175 a gallon. January heating oil added 0.01 cents to $3.0884 a gallon while natural gas dropped 0.026 cents to $4.390 per million British thermal units. The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline rose at the pump, climbing to $3.268 a gallon from Wednesday's $3.264, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.