Home heating oil customers in limbo
By JOHN ANASTASI
Bucks County Courier Times
Wildly fluctuating prices have caused some local home heating oil companies to put off customer lock-in deals that guarantee a set rate for oil purchases during the winter heating season.
“We're waiting for next month to see what happens,” said Dan Sweeney of Krewson Oil Inc. of Lower Makefield. “It's been down and up like a yo-yo. If you buy at the wrong time, you're stuck with it.”
Dan Dougherty, of Upper Southampton's Merit Fuel Inc., said his company also is waiting to ink a deal with its wholesaler before offering customers a lock-in option for fuel delivery this winter.
“We haven't purchased yet, because [the price] is all over the place,” he said. “It's hard to predict anything anymore. It used to be that a 15-cent change in one day was unheard of. Three weeks ago, it moved 29 cents in a day.”
...
And although heating oil is used only for hot water during the summer, now is the time many customers strike deals to lock in a per-gallon price for the coming winter.
Last fall — at the end of the lock-in season — customers were paying about $2.68 to $2.88 per gallon of heating oil, which was about 40 cents higher than the previous winter's price, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's energy information administration.
On Friday, Merit Fuel Inc.'s discount price was $4.49 per gallon. At Krewson Oil Inc., it was $4.69 per gallon.
Hilltown's Mike McMackin purchases his oil heat from Moyer Indoor Outdoor in Souderton. He estimated it could cost him about $7,000 to heat his home this year at a lock-in price of about $4.60 per gallon.
Moyer Indoor Outdoor general manager Bob Williamson said the estimated $7,000 per year doesn't reflect customers' average heating oil consumption. According to industry averages, a household in the Mid-Atlantic region consumes about 900 gallons of oil per year, said Williamson. That's about $4,140 per year at Moyer's $4.60 per gallon lock-in price.
phillyburbs.com |
