Crude oil prices settled overnight to nearly $78 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in anticipation of a stockpile report due Wednesday.

Light, sweet crude prices fell 73 cents to $78.39 with investors betting the U.S. Energy Information Administration will report high inventories.

Heating oil prices fell 0.0088 cents to $2.0385 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline prices dropped 0.0117 cents to $1.976 per gallon. Natural gas prices gave up 0.011 cents to $5.15 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.596 per gallon Wednesday, up from Tuesday's $2.577, AAA said.