Oil prices fell below $78 a barrel Thursday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 28 cents at $77.74 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.23 to settle at $78.02 on Wednesday. In other Nymex trading in September contracts, heating oil fell 1.87 cents to $2.0565 a gallon, gasoline dropped 1.18 cents to $1.9858 a gallon and natural gas slid 1.4 cents to $4.312 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent crude was down 38 cents at $77.26 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.