Oil prices fall Tuesday

NEW YORK, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices fell Tuesday to $46.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, plunging to a low unseen in more than three and a half years.

Oil lost fell $1.79 per barrel as "the market is dealing with a lot of bearish fundamentals," Andy Lebow of brokerage MF Global told The Wall Street Journal.

"As we approach the end of the year you're looking at questions about demand slowing globally," he said.

Heating oil prices fell 0.0342 cents to $1.5832 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline fell 0.0407 cents to $1.0583 per gallon. Natural gas prices fell 0.076 cents to $6.424 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.812 Tuesday, down from Monday's $1.82 a gallon, AAA said.