Home Heating Prices Hit High

www.newsday.com By Tom Incantalupo STAFF WRITER February 27, 2003

Home heating oil prices are the highest in three years on Long Island and in New York City - and they might go still higher, experts say, before this dreadful winter is over.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority said the average price for home heating oil as of Tuesday was $1.952 per gallon in Nassau and Suffolk counties and $1.987 in the city. The state surveys full-service oil retailers; cash-on-delivery prices usually are lower.

In January and early February of 2000, prices had soared to about $2.20 a gallon during a cold snap, but quickly fell as the weather moderated.

This winter has been consistently colder than normal - not just in the Northeast but in other regions and other countries where oil is consumed for heat. Meanwhile, the flow of crude and refined products from Venezuela, the fourth-largest supplier to this country, still is about 30 percent below normal because of a two-month strike by oil workers. Fears of supply interruptions from a war with Iraq also are pushing up petroleum prices. In this area, last week's oil barge explosion near Staten Island further tightened supplies of petroleum products.

"This is going to be from start to finish one expensive heating season," said Joe Roy, Long Island coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group's fuel buyers cooperative.

Natural gas prices also have soared to near record levels, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the energy trading firm Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. Spokesman Andrea Staub of KeySpan Energy Delivery said homeowners who heat and cook with natural gas will pay about 30 percent more this heating season than last, or about $1,155 per household, in part because of the price increase but, mostly, she said, because of additional usage.

Kevin Rooney, executive director of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, estimates that the average bill for this season will be about 40 percent higher than last year, or about $1,224. About 80 percent of a typical home's annual oil use is burned during the heating season.

Flynn says heating oil prices could rise further if the weather stays colder than normal in coming weeks. "If this winter hangs around past St. Patrick's day," he said, "it's going to be the spending of the green."