Dropping to less than $82 per barrel, as equities fell on word Greek debt was downgraded crude oil prices fell sharply on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Perhaps jeopardizing Greece's ability to tap into international rescue loans set up to help it deal with its mounting debt, Standard & Poor's downgraded Greek bond to junk status.

Loosing 1.9 percent, 213.04 points, The Dow Jones industrial average went down to 10,991.99.

Crude oil prices for June delivery lost $2.38 Tuesday morning to $81.82 per barrel.

In New York, heating oil prices for June lost 0.0183 cents to $2.2454 per gallon.

Reaching $2.3172 per gallon, reformulated gasoline blend-stock prices for June lost 0.0281 cents,.

It was further reported that Henry Hub natural gas prices for June slid 0.051 cents to $4.30 per million British thermal units.

According to the reports of AAA, at the pump, the national average price for unleaded gasoline was $2.858 per gallon Tuesday, up from Monday's $2.854. (With Inputs from Agencies)