Crude oil prices fall a bit Tuesday

NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Crude oil and gas prices slid lower Tuesday as a major energy adviser said market fundamentals were "easing."

The International Energy Agency Tuesday pointed to "easing fundamentals and potentially higher stocks in the months to come," The Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. Department of Energy also lowered its estimate for the 2008 average price of oil to $119.09 per barrel, down 6.5 percent from a previous estimate, the Journal reported.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil prices dropped $1.57 to $113 per barrel. Heating oil fell 0.0418 cents to $3.0817 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0229 cents to $2.8496 per gallon. Natural gas prices fell 0.075 cents to $8.335 per million British thermal units.

The national average retail price of unleaded regular gasoline fell 0.011 cent to $3.799 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.