Oil prices

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mass_burner

Minister of Fire
Sep 24, 2013
2,645
SE Mass
OK, for us supplemental wood burners, where is this oil market going? I am sitting at 1/8 tank and need to make a buy in the next month.
 
We just bought 100 gallons. Paid 330 gal. Use it for DHW only. Probably could have waited longer. Hindsight really is accurate.
 
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OK, for us supplemental wood burners, where is this oil market going? I am sitting at 1/8 tank and need to make a buy in the next month.
demand should only drive price up. slower than past years. Nat Gas up roughly$1.00 in the last week. latest vortex, if long lasting as they say, will push it again. early demand will dent inventories in both fuels, price of both will follow. that is jmo, but even the gov't weather service was not calling for significant cold in Nov.
 
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Yes, I last quote I got was 3.25 on Tuesday. I was thinking of ordering 100 gals and then going long heating oil ETF in case the price goes up.
 
We received a fill on 10/1/14 for the house tank. I wasn't able to find the slip, but the last fill was in late April '14. We passed on a "top off" for the barn (my shop) because prices seemed to be on a downward trend and there was plenty of oil in the tank. I see we're due for a "top off" next week and we may hold off as prices seem to be dropping and we're able to pay in full upon delivery. This is good news since the good man has been a "lazy bones" about setting a date with yours truly and "getting busy" on the wood to be split and stacked! I am pointedly not using the stoves at present; makes more sense to keep the thermostats on the low side and conserve the firewood for the really cold months!
 
It's around $2.75 here in southern Maine. My tank is at 5/8 right now but I usually check the prices weekly. When they start going up again I'll fill the tank and that should be it until next summer.
 
Bestest Buddy paid $3.03 per gallon for 75 to top off her 225 gallon tank this week. It'll last her until mid January for heat & HW.

My tank sits empty. No need put anything in it.

Electric HWH and the 2 stoves get it done.

Tomorrow sees both chineys cleaned, the too bigs cut to size, and a whole lot of splitting & stacking going on. The too bigs are atleast 1 year split / cut/ etc. Gonna be alot of firewood here in Dixie Land :cool:
 
Bestest Buddy paid $3.03 per gallon for 75 to top off her 225 gallon tank this week. It'll last her until mid January for heat & HW.

My tank sits empty. No need put anything in it.

Electric HWH and the 2 stoves get it done.

Tomorrow sees both chineys cleaned, the too bigs cut to size, and a whole lot of splitting & stacking going on. The too bigs are atleast 1 year split / cut/ etc. Gonna be alot of firewood here in Dixie Land :cool:
Best to keep tank full,stops condensation and rust just my 2 cents. Now that price is down good time to fill up just like money in the bank.
 
Best to keep tank full,stops condensation and rust just my 2 cents. Now that price is down good time to fill up just like money in the bank.

I don't use my oil furnace. Haven't in 6 years.

At $3 a gallon my 550 tank would be beyond my range.
 
American Fuel in Hanover $2.92/150gal. Duval in Abington about the same.
Think I'm out of the service area for Hanover, I'll call and check. Thanks.
 
From spending 7 years at an oil desk, I can say folks do the best checking once a week this time of year. If it goes up even a penny, buy. If your talking 150 gallons and your off by 1 or 2 cents, you cost yourself $2-$3 total. Odds are as demand goes up, so will the prices. Play the odds. Sure, you may buy now at $3.00 and miss a chance to buy at $2.98, but that is better than waiting for the $2.98 and ending up paying $3.25. Unless there is a crisis it will only go up a few cents a week at most, so you can gamble that extra week see if it drops again, but why go thru the trouble of saving two bucks and chancing missing a price check and paying $10 or $20 more. In the fall, if it ticks up, buy.
 
I'm rolling the dice. My guess is oil is headed down or flat. I've got 200 gallons to play with and an empty tank to fill. Hoping to get to Jan 15. Seems like it always dips about then.

I'm living on the edge!
 
The cold snap in the Midwest and it spreading to the East for a week or so, I expect the demand is going to be going up.
 
My guess is oil is headed down or flat.

You got it. Brent crude spot just hit a four year low. And it, not WTI is driving the boat right now. And OPEC is opening the spigot to maintain revenues in the face of the low prices.

A price war at the wellhead instead of at the pump. What a concept.
 
NE heating oil is a fart in a windstorm as far as oil demand goes.
 
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I've been watching this site: http://www.newenglandoil.com/massachusetts/zone6.asp?x=0 for the last two years on and off.
The last week to ten days prices have held here to within a nickel either way. I won't mention which one has had the lowest price but they have been floating back and forth between 2.83 and 2.79 for almost two weeks.
I don't buy from any of the businesses listed there though.

The guy I buy from will do a hundred gallon minimum if I pay the driver with a check.
 
Less than six percent of homes in the US heat with oil and they are virtually all in the North East.
 
I will never forget my Mom putting in the coal stoves at the end of the 70's.

"Oil is 12 cents a gallon, that's outrageous !! I'm going to do some thing about this !!"

And she did :)
 
Less than six percent of homes in the US heat with oil and they are virtually all in the North East.
Yup I got 100's of gals.from folk's in my town when the gas line came in,sometimes 5 to 600 from the underground tanks yahoo free for the getting. Made a big score when a boat went aground CG wanted
fuel pumped off about 2000 and got paid to boot,the good old days.
 
The local New England heating oil prices are set by demand, there are very strict and expensive laws in place for firms bringing oil into the ocean terminals so few companies serve the region. The oil terminals used to store a lot of oil but switched over to just in time deliveries. Especially in winter when there is poor weather off shore, the deliveries stop or slow down significantly and the prices tend to skyrocket. Even if deliveries are normal and there is a cold snap, folks who waited to fill their tanks all decide to fill up when it gets cold and that can cause a price spike.
 
NE heating oil is a fart in a windstorm as far as oil demand goes.

But street price is somewhat set by the folks delivering the oil to the home. They check each other, probe the waters, feign this way and that. All want to see prices go up, all don't want to be the highest. Kind of how some gas stations set the pricing. So cold coming to the NE doesn't impact the world, the USA or hardly the east coast when it comes to fuel oil prices, but it certainly will change the street price in the cold areas.
 
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