Oil prices fell to near $76 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, the Associated Press reported. Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 51 cents at $76.29 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 39 cents to settle at $76.80 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 3.3 million barrels last week. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday. In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil was down 0.76 cent at $2.121 a gallon and gasoline fell 0.97 cents to $1.959 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 1.4 cents to $3.952 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude fell 43 cents to $78.84 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
