Crude oil prices slide Monday

April delivery, light, sweet crude lost $1.45 to $79.79 per barrel, as the dollar index, measuring U.S. currency against a basket of others, rose 0.57 percent.

Heating oil prices shed 0.0375 cents to $2.0565 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline blendstock lost 0.0362 to $2.2188 per gallon. Henry Hub natural gas prices added 0.021 cents to $4.421 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.79 per gallon Monday, up from Sunday's $2.789, AAA said.

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