Oil prices hovered near $76 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for August delivery was up 28 cents to $76.22 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.31, or 3 percent, to settle at $75.94 on Tuesday. In other Nymex trading in July contracts, heating oil fell 1.78 cents to $2.00 a gallon and gasoline dropped 0.20 cent to $2.07 a gallon. Natural gas was up 3.6 cents at $4.51 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent crude was down 7 cents to $75.37 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
