Oil prices hovered above $77 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for August delivery was up 9 cents to $77.24 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $2.20 to settle at $77.15 on Tuesday. In other Nymex trading in August contracts, heating oil fell 0.72 cent to $2.0402 a gallon, gasoline dropped 0.80 cent to $2.0741 a gallon and natural gas rose 1.5 cents to $4.369 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent crude was up 19 cents to $76.84 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
