Oil prices hovered near $75 a barrel Monday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 38 cents at $74.79 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.81 to settle at $75.17 on Friday. In other Nymex trading in September contracts, heating oil fell 0.67 cent to $2.038 a gallon and gasoline added 0.31 cent to $1.951 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery was steady at $3.704 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent crude was down 55 cents to $76.10 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.