Oil falls as Sandy heads to heavily populated U.S. East Coast

PanARMENIAN.Net - Oil prices fell Monday, Oct 29, as a gargantuan storm headed to the heavily populated U.S. East Coast, AP reports.

Benchmark oil for December delivery was down 34 cents to $85.92 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 23 cents to end at $86.28 per barrel in New York on Friday.

Forecasters say the massive storm system could blow ashore Monday across a wide swathe of the eastern seaboard, bringing with it the potential for massive flooding and widespread power outages.

"We're going to get some bad weather somewhere in the US because of Hurricane Sandy and that's not good for demand," Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions said in an email commentary.

New York City, the nation's biggest city, is in the direct path of the storm and expected to bear its brunt.

The New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange are shutting their trading floors in New York Monday, although trading will go on electronically.

While more than half a dozen refineries could be in the path of the storm, the U.S. is well-supplied with oil while demand for gasoline is down as large numbers of Americans remain unemployed and so don't drive to work.

Oil is down 13 percent since hitting $99 in mid-September.

In London, Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 25 cents per barrel to $109.30.