* Falls $2 as China's July crude imports drop
* Russia, Georgia conflict disrupts Caspian oil shipments
* BTC pipeline repair may take two or more weeks
(Updates throughout, changes dateline from LONDON)
NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Oil fell more than $2 to below
$113 a barrel on Monday as a drop in crude imports by No. 2
consumer China outweighed concerns over supply disruptions
stemming from the conflict between Georgia and Russia.
U.S. crude <CLc1> traded down $2.30 to $112.90 a barrel by
12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT), extending losses that have dragged
oil off a record high over $147 a barrel hit on July 11.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $2.00 to $111.33.
China's crude imports unexpectedly fell 7 percent in July
to a seven-month low, the steepest monthly drop since January
2005, as refiners balked at soaring crude costs amid lagging
domestic fuel prices. []
The drop in Chinese imports added to wider concerns about
demand. Consumption in the United States and other developed
economies has fallen due to high fuel prices.
"I think that sentiment is changing on China, that it
(demand) might not grow at the same rate that it has in the
past couple of years, and the figures from this morning attest
to that," said Lehman Brothers oil analyst James Crandell.
Rising demand from China and other developing economies
sent oil on a six-year rally that drove prices up sevenfold to
their peak in July. Additional buying support this year came
from investors buying oil to hedge against inflation and the
weak dollar.
The dollar has been rallying against the euro since last
week as investors have reassessed the impact of the U.S.
economic slowdown on the rest of the world.[]
Western powers appealed to Russia on Monday for an
immediate cease-fire in the Caucasus after Moscow pushed troops
further into Georgia and Tbilisi shelled the Russian-held
region of South Ossetia. []
Oil traders have pushed prices down despite the potential
for the conflict to disrupt key transportation links for
Caspian Sea oil producers, including Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan.
Georgia's oil ports of Supsa and Batumi, which export
Azeri crude, have reduced shipments while the Georgian port of
Poti has been shut. Kazakhstan also stopped shipments of its
crude from Batumi. []
The cutbacks come after a fire in eastern Turkey on the
Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline last week halted loadings of
Azeri Light crude shipped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The blaze was extinguished on Monday and repairs may take
one to two weeks or longer, a source at the pipeline consortium
said, forcing BP <BP.L> to cut output by at least 400,000
barrels a day at the Azeri-Chirag Gunashli oilfields.
[]
OPEC President Chakib Khelil, speaking on a visit to Iran,
urged members of the oil exporters' group to stick to agreed
targets on output. []
OPEC is overshooting its informal output target, with Saudi
Arabia leading the way after the kingdom pledged to meet rising
demand and help tame runaway oil prices. The producer group
next meets on Sep. 9 to decide on output policy.
(Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Gene Ramos, and Robert
Gibbons in New York, Alastair Sharp and Santosh Menon in
London, Fayen Wong in Perth; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
