Oil prices fall sharply Monday morning

New York -- Crude oil prices fell nearly $3 to $118.60 a barrel in electronic overnight trading, continuing a monthlong decline on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude fell to $118.60 per barrel on falling demand and the lack of anything else standing in its way, analysts said.

"It seems that the market is losing interest in geopolitical and weather-induced prop, and instead is becoming more aware of growing supply/demand imbalances," Edward Meir an analyst at MF Global in New York told The Wall Street Journal.

"On the demand side, energy participants are sensing that the global-growth picture is deteriorating rapidl, and is now no longer confined solely to the United States," Meir said.

Heating oil prices also fell Tuesday, down 0.0576 cents to $3.2925 per gallon.

Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0627 cents to $2.9375 per gallon. Natural gas prices dropped 0.276 cents to $8.45 per million British thermal units.

The national average retail price of unleaded gasoline fell 0.01 cent to $3.871 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.