Crude oil heads under $109, New York

Crude oil prices for October delivery eased back under $109 per barrel Monday after a Syrian official said a diplomatic solution to tensions there was possible. As the debate went on in Washington over whether to launch a military strike to punish Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, the Syrian foreign minister in Moscow, Walid al-Moualem, said Syria was open to the idea of having control of its chemical weapons transferred to an international team of monitors, The Washington Post reported. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for October delivery shed $1.56 to $108.97 per barrel. Reformulated blendstock gasoline dropped 6.82 cents to $2.7855 per gallon. Natural gas gave up 2.5 cents to $3.58 per million British thermal units. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline dropped to $3.57 per gallon Monday, down from Sunday's $3.571, AAA's daily fuel gauge report said.