Crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange continued to fluctuate in a tight range near $79.

As the dollar index showed a slight decline on Tuesday morning, down by 0.2 percent, April delivery light, sweet crude added 97 cents to $79.67 per barrel.

0.0279 cents were added to heating oil prices to settle at $2.0514 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline prices added 0.0394 cents to $2.195 per gallon. There was a gain of 0.033 cents in natural gas prices which ended the day at $4.712 per million British thermal units.

AAA said that at the pump, down from Monday's $2.705, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.703 per gallon on Tuesday. (With input from agencies)