Oil prices bounced back towards $72 a barrel Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for June delivery was up $1.79 to $71.87 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In other Nymex trading in June contracts, heating oil rose 3.07 cents to $2.0159 a gallon, and gasoline gained 4.63 cents to $2.0894 a gallon. Natural gas jumped 9.1 cents to $4.489 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude July contact was up $1.30 to $76.40 on the ICE futures exchange.