One year ago on January 2, crude prices eclipsed the once unfathomable price of $100 a barrel for the first time, a day largely lost to history because of the year that followed.

Crude traded close to $45 on Friday as OPEC embarks on its largest production cut ever in an attempt to stem the historic price decline and yet another economic report suggested the US economy is ill and demand for energy will remain weak.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 53 cents to $45.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil's surge into triple digits for the first time one year ago was the start of a climb that would peak above $147 a barrel by July. Since then, amid fears of a prolonged global recession and crumbling worldwide demand, crude prices have plunged more than 70 per cent.

"Thank goodness that's over!" Raymond James & Associates said in a note to clients today, summing up what many traders feel after the most volatile year since crude futures were offered on Nymex in 1983.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the reading to fall to 35.5. Any reading above 50 signals growth while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The index has fallen steadily for the last five months.

The February contract for crude rose $5.57 on Wednesday, the last trading day of 2008, to settle at $44.60 after Russia threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine.

Russia followed through with that threat yesterday, though both countries pledged they would keep supplies to the rest of Europe flowing.

The European Union depends on Russia for about a quarter of its gas, with about 80 per cent of that delivered  through pipelines controlled by Ukraine.