* Hurricane Sandy seen impacting fuel demand in US East
Coast
* 2 New Jersey refineries slow to restart on power, flooding
issues
* China PMI surveys show economy perking up
* Coming up: EIA weekly petroleum stocks and output data at
1100/1500 GMT
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Brent crude edged down toward
$108 a barrel on Thursday as investors focused on concerns that
storm Sandy’s rampage across the U.S. East Coast could reduce
fuel demand and shrugged off data pointing to a recovery in
China.
Industrial activity in China improved in October, confirming
a trend toward recovering growth, though the recovery remains
sluggish.
Investors also kept to the sidelines on an uncertain
political outlook at the world’s two largest oil consumers as
Americans head to the polls and new Chinese top leaders take
over.
Oil prices could continue trading sideways ahead of the U.S.
elections just six days away, analysts said.
Brent crude for December delivery fell 32 cents to
$108.38 a barrel by 0246 GMT. The front-month contract slipped
for a second straight month in October on ample crude supply and
worries about lower fuel demand due to a slowing global economy.
U.S. crude for December delivery was at $86.22 a
barrel, down 2 cents.
“China’s PMI is generally in line with expectations and the
market has priced it in,” said Natalie Rampono, a commodity
strategist at ANZ.
“A lot of attention is dedicated to the U.S after Sandy came
through. The Northeast is a populated area and with roads and
infrastructure down, we’re probably going to see less driving
and gasoline use.”
U.S. gasoline futures for December eased 0.07 percent
to $2.6285 a gallon after strong gains on Wednesday as spotty
electrical power and flooding damage stymied the recovery of two
New Jersey refineries.
Phillips 66 confirmed it had restored power to its
238,000-barrel-per-day Bayway refinery in New Jersey, but
executives provided no damage assessment or time frame for
resuming output. Sources expect the plant to resume operations
next week at the earliest.
Yet, the destruction wrought by powerful storm Sandy
affected millions of people across the eastern United States and
could dampen fuel demand just as the world’s largest economy was
showing signs of recovery, analysts said.
U.S. oil demand in August was slightly stronger than
previously estimated, but still down nearly 1 percent from a
year ago, the U.S. government said.
Investors will scour weekly oil inventory statistics from
the Energy Information Administration later today after industry
data showed a 2.1 million barrels rise in crude stockpiles last
week.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
were also keeping the global market well supplied.
OPEC oil output has risen slightly in October as extra
supplies from Iraq, Angola and Libya have offset disruptions in
Nigeria and a further decline in Iran to its lowest in two
decades, a Reuters survey found on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Kim Coghill)
