Fuel Oil
 

Hello

Who are folks using for heating oil in Wolfeboro? I have always used Wolfeboro Oil but hadn’t needed a fill up for several years as I have been shutting my house down for winters recently. Anyway, I called Wolfeboro Oil this month as I needed a load. The lady I dealt with was very professional but treated me as a new customer even though I have paid Wolfeboro Oil faithfully for 23 years. Evidently, Wolfeboro Oil sold out to a larger outfit in the past year or two. Oh well, she ran a credit check and we moved beyond that issue. Today the bill arrives and it is $4.95 a gallon! Yikes. I got a load recently in Massachusetts and it was $4.59 a gallon. Admittedly, Wolfeboro Oil is a full service provider and I use a smaller outfit and contract out service in Massachusetts so the cost is less. I suppose they also hit me with premium pricing due to the fact I don’t order regularly. I’m not dissatisfied with Wolfeboro Oil but figure I should evaluate local suppliers. The advantage of larger outfits like Wolfeboro Oil is they are typically there if you have problems on a 10 below night in January.

I’m not sure how the average person is going to afford to heat his house next winter. My bill was over $900!

Thanks

Elections have consequences...

A time for weeping…..
 

Yes, and those consequences can be dire!

I didn't purchase oil company stocks and futures due to an election.
And it is those of us that invest in those things that set the price.

Everyone is going to have to cut back, and the Governors are going to need to learn how to play hardball.

Two large local companies, Rymes Oil and Dead River Oil have been sold to new owners recently who paid big big money to buy them.

Fuel Oil gets tinted red, diesel fuel gets tinted blue, there is little to no difference between the two, and they are priced very much the same price.

Have you seen the price for diesel lately? Over at Golden Pond Market in Holderness, regular gasoline is $3.59/gal and diesel is $4.69/gal and home heating oil needs a tanker truck with a long hose and a cdl/haz-mat driver to truck it to your house and hook up the long hose.

If you made a prepay for your fuel oil in August 2021, the oil truck would be delivering it to your house for about $3.09/gal, tomorrow on Monday April 11, 2022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflation ..... conflating the high price of heating oil with politics may make you feel a little bit better, right now at this time, but paying with a pre-pay back in August is what you shoulda-woulda-coulda DONE did. ..... ;)

I just got a fill up and prices have gone up almost a dollar a gallon since February. Your 36 cent per gallon difference between home and here may simply be the continuing price spikes for gas/energy.

It never hurts to look around but if you are not going to buy heating oil for another couple years and you are happy with your company the situation could be completely different by then.

Treating you as a new customer was not surprising, especially the credit check since you are only buying every few years. Prices are significantly higher and a lot of people's financial fortunes have changed due to COVID disruptions and the dems hacks of the economy. The delivery I just got cost $880. At last July's prices it would have been $522, an increase of $358 (+69%). That's an increased financial risk for the oil companies holding outstanding unpaid bills, especially when their costs (cost of product, fuel for delivery trucks, wages, office energy expenses) are soaring.

I don’t disagree Jeff. As I said, the lady at Wolfeboro Oil was professional and given today’s prices I can understand the oil company has increased financial risk on relatively low margins. The truck driver also was professional. It just felt funny given my long term payment history. And I’m also not used to seeing $900 fuel bills but that is more a macro issue so I posted to see what others thought.

Thanks

Mark

Delivery scheduled for tomorrow at $4.99 per from Foley. About the prepayment, three years ago had one prepared they would have spent more per gallon. Have been thinking of making the switch to propane the past few seasons, this may push me there


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My oil pre-buy at $2.749/gallon has been fabulous. Maybe one more delivery before the end of May to top things off.

As many have stated, elections do indeed have consequences. Imagine, Gulf energy producing states refuse to take calls from our President and requests to increase production. They can make all their money with high oil prices, so why produce more to lower the prices? Makes little sense to them. Add to that the cancellation of Keystone, fracking, Anwar, uncertain leases, etc. etc. and you get the whole GREEN NEW DEAL led by progressives like AOC, etc. etc. Do you think they care about your heating prices? NO !!!! Haven't heard anyone from NH in DC address that situation or raise hell about what is going on? Nope, me neither.

Here's the deal...if you feel you like the rampant inflation across the board, uncontrolled immigration at our southern border, high fuel prices, uncontrolled DC
spending with ever increasing federal debt, etc., then keep voting to put the current politicians back in. Simple option for you when you mark your ballot. If you want change, the answer is in your hand. Think about it !

None of those did anything... again... learn to be an investor rather than a political analyst.

The oil from the tar sands enters the market through western Canada, no fracking has been restricted on a federal level, all leases are certain... but not being used due to labor and equipment issue, and the ANWAR leases were only bid on by two groups... neither of which has ever produced one drop of oil from the ground.

US oil refiners are at historic capacity utilization...
As an investor, I only need to listen to the people that want to use more complain, but not change their habit to know that bidding up oil futures is a profitable play both in crude and distillate.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=51338

The next thing I am looking at for investment is things affected by drought in the American West and lost crops due to the Ukraine situation.

Banned from Canada and from Eastport, Maine ........ something tells me this Russian bulk cargo ship, the Fesco Uliss ..... https://www.maritime-executive.com/a...ransload-cargo .... loaded with 8000 tons of solid pitch from Vladivostok Russia, a petroleum derived raw material, was able to lower its price or load it onto another non-Russian ship or do something like sell it to "Smiling Jack in Bogota, Columbia" and sell it somewhere in central or south america or someplace.

After all, once it gets loaded into storage it does not identify as coming from Russia ..... it is 8000-tons of solid pitch ..... used to make asphalt roof shingles for residential houses in the United States.

Hey there Mercier ...... you hear anything on a low priced ship load of 8000-tons, solid pitch for making your fancy roof shingles ....... :patriot:?

No. But no one in the US, is going to risk buying anything from Russia.
We don't have problems getting asphalt shingles... we have problems keeping them in stock.

The new asphalt shingles are a four color drop. Normally the manufacturers would shutdown the lines and change out the colors. The demand has been so high that they cannot afford the time to shut the lines down.
So each line runs a standard high demand color... and tractor trailer loads to us are sold out in less than a week.

One strategy for dealing with oil companies is to have an account with more than one company. Then you can check prices for oil and service and go with the best price. I found earlier this year that the company with the best price (but no service/technicians) had a more than 15-day wait for oil, so you can't wait until the last minute to order. Ultimately I dealt with the increase to $5 a gallon by switching to the wood stove. Also, many/most people seem to think that they "must" set the thermostat at 70. I think that's a myth and if you're bothered by $5 a gallon you should set it at 60 and put on some warmer clothes. Think about it: if you went outside in January and it was 60 degrees you would think it was downright balmy. The body can acclimate to a lower temperature. Also, get a down blanket and turn the thermostat down to 50 at night.

Don’t agree with your multi company statement. Foley oil, for example won’t deliver to your home unless they complete a tank/system inspection. Same with Stafford. With those requirements how would one play one off the other?


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Agreed. Switching fuel delivery companies for a few cents here and there isn't going to make a big difference.

You can make your home more efficient (usually focusing on the air exchange rate), or use less hot water - if it is supplied by the system, but switching companies repeatedly, I don't think would go over.

There are companies that advertise lower prices for cash on call, as opposed to auto delivery. It you don't know how soon they will get there or if they will deliver before you run out. Best price is probably a buying co-op with pre purchase in April or May for the 22-23 heating season. Look around: more and more house have at least two heat sources, say, oil and wood or pellets, heat pumps, mini-splits, etc.

Amerigas: largest liquid propane supplier in the U.S.
 

Amerigas $200 & $300 fast delivery surcharges; so last January during the cold snap I found out about their $300-surcharge.

I let the propane tank get real low, like down to 5%-full before notifying them. They want to get your refill call when the tank is at 25%. So, a two or three day fast delivery requires a $200-surcharge. A one day, same or next day delivery requires a $300-surcharge.

It must be paid with a credit card, over the phone, even when you already have paid ahead with a pre-pay plan.

It was the best $300-surcharge I ever paid ....... ha-ha-ha ...... :laugh::eek::laugh: ...... hee-hee-hee ...... :D ..... ho-ho-ho ..... and was the correct thing for me to do at the time .... weeeoooo ...... and, today is April 11! You know April is a really GOOD month! I like April.

Live & learn ...... thank-you Amerigas for the super fast service before the tank ran out in danged cold January.... Laconia-Amerigas .... will say a prayer for you in church on Sunday. ..... :patriot:!

Google is your friend.

Elections has zero to do with the price of crude oil. Crude oil is a world wide set price. Spot price.

Maybe one should ask why the USA oil companies are exporting crude oil to foreign countries.

In 2021, the United States imported about 8.47 million barrels per day (b/d) of petroleum from 73 countries. Petroleum includes crude oil

In 2021, the United States exported about 8.63 million b/d of petroleum to 176 countries and 4 U.S. territories

LINK


Maybe one should Google why USA oil companies are exporting USA crude - and just keep it in USA to lower gas prices.

Why are the USA oil companies and the USA oil company stock holders keeping this exported oil right here in the USA ? To lower prices?

The USA oil companies are importing oil and the USA oil companies are exporting oil. Importing and exporting ?

Why is that ?

Lots of companies in lots of industries import, export and sell domestically in varying degrees. The reason oil companies do this is because they have customers all over the world and they do business all over the world. Many of them have contractually obligations with foreign customers. Many of them would be very reluctant to put all of their eggs in one basket (US) and ignore their global customers. Especially since the current US administration is at war with their industry. Keep googling you are missing a lot of information.

Once you order oil from any company, you have an account there. Order from two companies and you have two accounts. There is no obligation that you always order from the same company, and they have no way of knowing where you're getting your oil. For all they know, you could be heating primarily with wood and buying one tank of oil a year. I guess they can inspect if they want, though no company has ever asked me for that.

The rules on the sale of crude to foreign refiners were changed as part of a budgetary agreement either very near the end of 2015 or early into 2016.

The US had always sold distillate (refined products) overseas... but had not been able to sell crude since 1975.

Less oil production would not make the price of crude go down... and the distillates are in high global demand, so refinery capacity utilization is a more important marker.

They do have consequences. All of us have seen Russia invade Ukraine, Trump praise Putin immediately afterwards, and Biden move aggressively to reduce the flow of Russian oil.

So I agree that oil prices would be lower, and Vladimir Putin happier, if Trump had won.

I think the world would be a much more dangerous place in that scenario.

How true. Unfortunately we can't have it all: safe world + cheap oil and gas when a deranged dictator controls the oil and gas and has nuclear weapons. Many countries realize they have to give up the cheap oil and gas to avoid a worse fate.

Russian oil is still entering the global market. Even if it goes to China and India, the supply they would have purchased flows to other countries that are banning Russian oil. The products are for the most part fungible.

You must be a Democrat...

Yes, I agree on this and the gist of your other oil posts--it's mostly fungible. So it does not matter if Russian oil flows to US or China, as long as it flows; and it does not matter if the US is "energy independent".

Prices are up globally because Russian exports are down and could well fall further. My understanding is that Russia is down by 30% or so, but this is probably changing daily. so who really knows? And of course, the expectation of exports being down in the future is enough to push price up today.