Oil lower on concerns over demand

SINGAPORE: Oil prices extended losses in Asian trade on Monday on worries of weak demand in the US, the world's biggest energy consumer, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, shed 44 cents to USD 80.80 a barrel. The benchmark futures contract had briefly topped USD 83 on Friday.

Brent North Sea crude for April was down 46 cents to USD 78.93 a barrel.

"It's still within the lower part of the straight range we saw on Friday so it hasn't moved a great deal after that," said David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

"Given that USD 83 has been the high end of the recent trading range, I think we saw buyers become more cautious at those levels and I think it's probably spilled over into the trading this morning," he said.

Oil prices fell Friday after news of a surprise decline in consumer confidence in the US, triggering concerns about demand in the world's biggest economy.

The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index dropped for the second consecutive month in March, to 72.5 from 73.6 in February, instead of rising to 74.0 as analysts expected.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency raised its forecast for global demand in 2010 Friday citing an "astonishing" growth trend of 28 per cent in China as advanced economies emerge from recession.