Oil prices dropped to near $69 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, The Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 34 cents to $69.11 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract fell $1.15 to settle at $69.45. In other Nymex trading, gasoline for September delivery fell 1.02 cents to $2.03 a gallon and heating oil dropped 2.17 cents to $1.88. Natural gas for September delivery slid 1.7 cents to $3.52 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent prices fell 60 cents to $71.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
