Oil Prices Rise | Video

Jennifer Joas | 1/2/2013

The move by Congress to avert the fiscal cliff brought a sigh of relief for oil producers in the Bakken. The price of crude oil rose by as much as two dollars a barrel from Monday to a high of $93.87. The higher the price of oil, the more it will benefit the producers and the local economy.

But a Bismarck investor says the price likely won`t reach $100, unless there`s trouble overseas.

"To go above a hundred is going to take some kind of trouble over in the Middle East, and of course we have Israel and Iran, it seem like they hot up again every six weeks. So we`ll see. That would require some action over there to get us over $100," said Eugene Graner with Heartland Investor Services.

Graner says if Washington can`t increase spending cuts and raise the debt ceiling, the value of the U.S. dollar will tumble, which will lead to higher gas prices.

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