Welsh Oil Thefts Up 500%
Organized criminal groups are tailing heating oil delivery trucks and casing rural British properties before returning at night to steal the “liquid gold”.
A spike in the price of fuel oil across the UK has contributed to a 500 percent increase in the number of Welsh heating oil thefts in the last five years, the BBC [...]
Senator Seeks Hearing on Northeast Refineries
Three US lawmakers are calling for a high-level hearing into refinery closures in the Northeast, which are tipped to cause price hikes for millions of heating oil users, Reuters reports. The call comes as hundreds protest in Pennsylvania against the refineries being shut down, marching in numbers on Saturday on Gov Tom Corbett’s office.
Senator Bob Casey [...]
Heating Oil Expenditure to Hit New Record
Despite much of the country experiencing its fourth warmest winter on record, residential heating oil expenditure is still tipped to hit record highs this winter, giving little reprieve to struggling homeowners.
It its weekly petroleum report, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday the average household is forecast to spend $2326 heating their home with fuel [...]
Heating Oil Tale Moves US to Generosity
A newspaper story on a struggling heating oil dealer’s benevolence has sparked a national outpouring of generosity for cash-strapped oil heat customers, the Huffington Post reports.
Ike Libby runs Hometown Energy, a fuel oil delivery business in Dixfield, Maine. Like countless heating oil dealers around the country, Libby is no stranger to the hardship faced by [...]
What’s Driving Heating Oil Prices?
Heating oil contracts ended last week at their highest level in 11 weeks, despite warmer than normal winter temperatures cutting into heating demand, Reuters reports.
Heating oil futures contracts, bought and sold by energy traders on world commodity markets, settled on Friday at $3.1144 a gallon, gaining 6.15 cents, or 2 percent for the day. It [...]
Domestic Crude Oil Production Tipped to Rise
US oil production is on the rise and a federal energy agency predicts it will balloon by 20 percent over the next decade, hitting levels unseen since the 1990s, upi.com reports.
In its annual energy outlook for 2012, the US Energy Information Administration estimates that the nation’s daily crude oil production will reach 6.7 million barrels [...]
No Compo for Fuel Oil Customers
The Pennsylvania attorney-general’s office is warning that thousands of customers who were cheated in a pre-paid heating oil scam are unlikely to be reimbursed.
Customers of A&B Fuel, whose advance heating fuel payments disappeared when the company’s owners skipped town, face little prospect of restitution, poconorecord.com reports.
A Wayne County court finalized the company’s bankruptcy in 2010, [...]
Iranian Tensions Pressure Oil Prices
Fears are growing of global oil supply disruptions after Europe announced a ban on Iranian oil in response to the rogue nation’s nuclear program.
UN arms inspectors are carrying out inspections in Iran this week and the country’s leaders were scheduled to debate the ban yesterday in response to an EU embargo on Iranian crude, AP [...]
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 [...]