SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices gained Friday after slipping to their lowest level in five months in the previous session, with some analysts predicting the front-month contract had found a bottom and that sustained cold weather in the United States would support an upswing.

Midmorning, light, sweet crude for December delivery rose 26 cents to $56.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Thursday slipped $1.55 to finish at $56.33 a barrel.

"(Thursday), oil more or less hit a bottom," said energy analyst Victor Shum of Texas-headquartered Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "The expectation now is that sustained cold weather in the U.S. Northeast is just a matter of time, and that's keeping crude from falling too low."

The U.S. Northeast is the world's largest winter heating fuel market. Analysts have predicted an extremely cold, long winter would boost demand for heating oil and drive up energy prices in a traditionally peak-demand season.

Many parts of the United States already experiencing chilly weather in the past few days will see even colder blasts next week, according to an Accuweather.com forecast dated Thursday.

"The arctic stocked up on a huge supply of ammo during the first half of November, and now it's unloading both barrels," said Accuweather.com senior meteorologist John Kocet. "A much colder air mass arrived this week, but that's nothing compared to next week's blast."

Kocet said the northern states, the east coast and deep south would be affected by the arctic discharge, producing snowfall in some areas.

The weather is proving to be the biggest factor driving fuel prices at the moment. Crude slipped in Thursday's session to its lowest since June 15 on an increase in U.S. inventories of natural gas, easing fears that there won't be enough fuel to heat homes as winter approaches.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday natural gas inventories rose by 53 billion cubic feet to 3.28 trillion cubic feet for the week ending Nov. 11. A day earlier, EIA reported that in the past week the supply of distillates, which includes heating oil, jet fuel and diesel, grew by 2.6 million barrels to 123.4 million barrels, or 3 percent above year-ago levels.

Both natural gas and heating oil are used to heat American homes.

Nymex December heating oil rose 0.3 cent to $1.70 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery fell 4.2 cents to $11.900 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gasoline inched up to $1.4605 a gallon.