Augusta – Tuesday morning’s frosted fields signaled the start of Maine’s heating season. It comes with the price of warmth already up about 5 percent over last year’s opening chill.
The Maine State Planning Office released the first of its weekly home heating cost surveys late Monday showing the statewide average price for No. 2 heating oil to be $1.25 per gallon. That’s down 36 cents since the SPO’s last survey on March 24, but it’s also seven cents higher than a year ago at this time.
The kerosene price average for the week is down 37 cents from last March at $1.48 per gallon, but that’s a nickel higher than this time last year.
One sign that autumn is affecting the U.S. oil market is a shift in focus from gasoline toward heating oil, noted Betsy Elder of the SPO in a narrative accompanying the survey findings. U.S. crude oil inputs into refineries have declined by 682,000 barrels per day over the past few weeks, she said.
That’s typical in the fall when many refiners use the period between the gasoline season and the heating oil season to perform routine maintenance on their facilities in order to keep them running efficiently and safely the rest of the year, Elder added.
Commercial crude oil inventories hover around 280 million barrels, she said, which is below the average range for this time of year.
Additional imports could help to boost inventories back to normal levels. Normal inventory levels in turn should keep retail market prices stable.
The lowest actual heating oil price of $1.09 per gallon was found this week in the southwest region of Maine. The high-end price of $1.40 per gallon was found in the western region. That means there’s a 31-cent disparity statewide between high and low actual prices for heating oil.
The western region offered the low-end price average for kerosene at $1.42 per gallon and the eastern region displayed the high-end price average for kerosene at $1.53 per gallon.
The week’s propane price survey found the statewide average to be down 14 cents since last March at $1.62 per gallon and up 13 cents from last year at this time, the SPO said.
The average price for propane represents the price per gallon for a 600-gallon domestic tank used for heating and is not representative of smaller volumes purchased for other applications such as cooking.
East Coast propane inventories are tracking well below the average range for this time of the year, Elder said.
dfletcher@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
