Crude prices drop more than $2 in New York

Crude oil prices fell significantly Monday on concerns about demand and ahead of an upcoming meeting by the US Federal Reserve, which will make a decision on US interest rates.

Despite recent speculation that demand for oil and oil products will expand soon, Asian oil refiner Sinopec said that demand for fuels used in industry is still weak in China.

In addition to the upcoming Fed meeting, G-20 member nations, consisting of the nineteen largest economies in the world plus the European Union, will meet this week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to try to figure out how to help the global economy recover from the recession.

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down $2.50 to $69.54 per barrel at about five minutes before the end of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude was $2.85 lower to $68.47 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

With October WTI contracts scheduled to expire Tuesday, November contracts were down almost 4 percent to $69.72 per barrel in afternoon trade.

Nymex October gasoline futures and November heating oil futures each were 7 cents lower in afternoon trade, to $1.76 per gallon and $1.79 per gallon respectively.

November natural gas futures were 15 cents lower in earlier trade to $4.51 per million British thermal units, continuing declines after a recent rally.

Meanwhile, the retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was even overnight at $2.551 per gallon still around $1.20 lower than last year at the same time.