Oil prices hovered below $70 a barrel on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for January delivery was up 10 cents at $69.61 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, the contract fell 36 cents to settle at $69.51. In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil was down 0.11 cent at $1.9071 while gasoline was up 0.48 at $1.8315. Natural gas rose 7.3 cents to $5.405 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude for January delivery lost 5 cents to $71.84 on the ICE Futures exchange.