U.S. heating oil price hits high for season - govt

Thu, Nov 5 04:29 AM

The U.S. average residential heating oil price reached its highest level so far this heating season, the Energy Department said on Wednesday, thanks mostly to expensive crude oil.

The nationwide heating oil price increased 1.2 cents over the last week to $2.73 a gallon, down 25 cents from a year ago, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of heating fuel costs around the country.

Heating fuel prices have risen 23 cents since the U.S. heating season began on Oct. 1 due to high crude oil prices, which represent about 60 percent of the cost for heating oil.

Expensive crude oil is pushing up prices for refined petroleum products across the board, as the retail costs for gasoline and diesel fuel also hit highs for 2009 this week.

The price for crude topped $81 a barrel in Wednesday trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

EIA, the Energy Department's analytical arm, said the highest retail price paid for home heating oil was again in the District of Columbia at $3.04 a gallon.

The next highest prices were in New York at $2.91 a gallon, New Jersey at $2.84 and Massachusetts at $2.81.

The lowest price for heating oil was in Nebraska at $2.38 a gallon, followed by Kentucky at $2.44 a gallon, Iowa at $2.46 and Minnesota at $2.50.

In a separate report, the EIA said U.S. heating oil inventories totaled 50.6 million barrels at the end of last week, down 1.1 million barrels from the week before, but up 10.3 million barrels from a year ago.

About 8 million American residences use heating oil, a small portion of total U.S. households, but almost half of the homes in the Northeast depend on it as their primary heating fuel.

Inside News

Editor's picks