Pickens says oil won't go below $100

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez takes a sample of crude during his weekly broadcast at a nationalized oil field at Orinoco's belt in the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River in this February 17, 2008 file photo.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Thursday crude prices may soon fall as low as $110 a barrel amid falling gasoline demand, but should not sink below $100 because the United States depends heavily on oil imports.

"I don't think it'll drop below $100," Pickens told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I would say $110 is where it might go, something like that."

U.S. drivers have turned to public transportation and shortened trips in response to high gasoline prices, a major factor in oil's drop of more than $31 a barrel since hitting a record over $147 per barrel last month.

Pickens' hedge fund BP Capital, which manages about $7 billion in assets, sank about 35 percent in July, according to a report this week in the New York Post.

Pickens declined to comment in the interview about the performance of his fund.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reported this week that vehicle travel declined for the eighth month in a row.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)