Crude oil steady overnight

The price of a barrel of crude oil hovered under $93 per barrel overnight after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified in Washington Tuesday. Bernanke defended the Fed's monetary policy position in an attempt to quell doubts that surfaced with the release of meeting minutes from a late January meeting that showed members of the Federal Open Market Committee divided on the issue. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for April delivery dropped 9 cents to $92.70 per barrel. Gasoline prices on the exchange dropped 2.13 cents to $3.1975 per gallon. Heating oil shed 0.15 cents to $3.034 per gallon. Natural gas lost 1.4 cents to hit $3.437 per million British thermal units. At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline rose from Tuesday's $3.782 per gallon to $3.786, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.