New Law Requires Oil Heat System Upgrades
A new law in Massachusetts requires every homeowner with an oil heating system to install safety measures to prevent damaging oil leaks.
The Oil Heating System Upgrade and Insurance Law came into effect on September 30 after earlier being pushed back by 14 months to give homeowners more time to comply. It requires homeowners with heating [...]
Obama Scuttles Keystone Pipeline
President Barack Obama is under fire for scuttling plans for the controversial $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline as heating oil costs soar, foxbusiness.com reports.
The 1700-mile pipeline project would have carried 700,000 barrels of Canadian sands crude to Texas refineries each day. Proponents argued it would create thousands of jobs, reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil [...]
Mainers Struggle with Cold
A bill that aims to fully fund the federal heat aid scheme to help vulnerable families this winter has stalled amid bickering in Washington, seacoastline.com reports.
Just before Christmas the government announced the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would be slashed from nearly $5 billion to $3.5 billion in its drive to reduce the [...]
Booming Distillate Demand: EIA
US refineries are ramping up production of distillate fuel to record levels on the back of heavy overseas demand and higher profit margins.
Figures released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration show distillate yields, which include heating oil and diesel, reached 29.7 percent in October. That matches the previous record set in December 2008.
The yield figure [...]
Consumer Tips to Handle Winter Weather
As winters go, we’ve had it pretty easy so far this heating season. Mild temperatures have cut demand for heating oil and forced the Energy Information Administration to lower its winter price forecast.
The use of heating oil, primarily in the Northeast, is expected to drop 7.4 percent nationwide this winter. Heating-oil users are expected to [...]
Union Calls for Hearings on Refinery Closures
An oil workers union is calling for congressional and state hearings to investigate the closures of three Philadelphia refineries which are tipped to cause heating oil price spikes in the Northeast.
Sunoco and ConocoPhillips have announced plans to idle or close the oil refineries which collectively account for nearly half the Northeast’s total refining capacity. [...]
Pre-Paid Heating Oil Law ‘Gutted’
A new law designed to protect the money of customers who sign up for pre-paid heating oil contracts is being labelled toothless by its main advocate, unionleader.com reports.
The New Hampshire House bill originally sought to force heating oil companies who took advance payment for winter heating oil deliveries to put 75 percent of customers’ money [...]
2011 in Review
A devastating Japanese tsunami, the Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East and dramatic developments in US crude production helped characterize oil markets in 2011.
The US Energy Information Administration released its 2011 in Review yesterday, a summary of the key developments that affected crude and heating oil supply and demand last year.
The earthquake and tsunami [...]
HO Contracts Post Big Yearly Gain
Heating Oil contracts have posted their third consecutive annual price increase, surging 15 percent in 2011, bloomberg.com reports. The bullish result came despite tought global economic conditions and has helped push residential prices to near record levels this winter.
Heating oil’s rise is being attributed to strong international demand for distillate fuels and the shuttering of [...]
Calls to Boost Northeast HO Reserve
The federal government is under pressure to increase the Northeast’s heating oil reserve to two million barrels to combat possible price spikes amid plans to idle three Pennsylvania oil refineries.
Three House Democrats wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week in response to proposals by ConocoPhillips and Sunoco to idle the three oil refineries, thehill.com [...]
Oil Artist Uses Crude in Ghostly Works
An artist is documenting the history of oil using crude meticulously sourced from individual oil wells all over the planet, thenational.ae reports.
Piers Secunda’s work hangs in a gallery in London. His ghostly images are painted on silkscreen to recreate old photographs of pioneering oil fields that characterize the industry’s early sweat and toil.
But rather than [...]
International Community Considers New Iranian Sanctions
The international community is stepping up efforts to restrict Iran’s oil revenue in a bid to hobble its suspected nuclear weapons program, businessweek.com reports.
As the European Union prepares to level new sanctions on the pariah Middle Eastern state in the form of an oil embargo, US officials have held high level meetings to discuss further [...]
LIHEAP Funding Cuts Announced
The US House has approved a $1.2 billion cut to the federal home heating aid program despite staunch protests by lawmakers across the oil-reliant Northeast.
The cut was signed off on Friday as part of a $1 trillion-plus last minute spending package to avert a government shutdown, wptz.com reported.
The move reduces the amount of funding available [...]
Oil Prices Tumble as Opec Boosts Output
Heating oil shed nearly 10 cents a gallon in its biggest one-day drop since August this week, offering a much needed reprieve to beleaguered homeowners.
Prices dropped to their lowest level since October 5 in frenzied commodity market trading, theaustralian.com reports. The selloff follows warmer than normal winter conditions in the heating oil stronghold Northeast of [...]
Residual Fuel Oil Use Falls in US
It’s the sticky, soot-laden residue of the oil refining process and demand for it here in the US is on the decline.
Residual fuel oil is used to fuel large ships, for electricity generation and industrial purposes. And it’s also still burned in many old heating oil furnaces, mainly in big apartment building and factories.
But the [...]
Lawmakers Campaign to Prevent Savage Heat Aid Cuts
Three New England senators will introduce a new bill to stave off deep cuts to a federal heat aid program as record heating oil price rises loom, businessweek.com reports.
Senators Olympia Snowe of Maine, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Jack Reed of Rhode Island say the proposed cuts imperil thousands of poor and elderly residents who [...]
Mild Weather Could Cut Fuel Oil Bills
A warmer than normal start to the heating season is cutting into demand and means homeowners face lower than expected heating oil bills, the Energy Department says.
But the savings could be offset by strong international demand for diesel, a distillate similar to heating oil, which is pushing fuel oil prices up, nasdaq.com reports.
In its monthly [...]
New Sanctions Aim to Cripple Iran’s Oil Exports
The US Senate has approved new sanctions against Iran aimed at restricting the pariah Middle Eastern state’s income from oil exports, Bloomberg reports.
But globalpost.com reports there are fears the sanctions could force crude and heating oil prices even higher if the measures significantly disrupt global oil supplies.
The latest sanctions, still to be approved by the [...]
Hunger Strike Over Heating Oil Cuts
A Romanian mayor has gone on hunger strike in protest at cuts to government heating oil subsidies.
Brad mayor Florin Cazacu, 46, refused to eat for six days in support of the town’s residents, who face freezing temperatures this winter of -22 degrees, dailynews.com reported.
As part of an austerity measures package to satisfy the International Monetary [...]
High Oil Prices “Strangling” Recovery
An international oil consumer watchdog is warning that high oil prices risk strangling the global economic recovery and hinted that OPEC should boost production.
The International Energy Agency’s chief economist Fatih Birol said Thursday the world economy was more fragile now than during the 2008-09 crisis, when oil prices were lower.
“I believe oil prices are well-positioned [...]