Oil Sinks, Gasoline Flat as Sandy Temporarily Dents Demand
Crude oil slumped and gasoline and heating oil futures were barely higher in afternoon trading, as Hurricane Sandy paralyzed travel on the East Coast.
It also appeared most of the region's refineries would continue to operate during the course of Hurricane Sandy. The Colonial Pipeline, which brings gasoline to the East Coast, shut down one line Monday and was monitoring the impact on two others.
"There will be some impact on refineries, but the big impact is on demand. You have a major metro area shut down between Washington and Boston," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. (Read More: )
"We're going to lose far more demand than refining supply. We'll have a better idea on Wednesday, but right now the Philadelphia area refineries are certainly attempting to run through the storm," he said.