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State Senate to debate oil bill

By AARON SANBORNasanborn@seacoastonline.comMarch 29, 2011 2:00 AM CONCORD — The Senate version of a bill that aims to regulate guaranteed price plans and prepaid contracts for heating oil, kerosene and natural gas is scheduled to hit the Senate floor on Wednesday. Senate Bill 197 passed the Senate's Commerce Committee last week and will now be debated on the floor. The bill establishes a provision where companies offering prepaid contracts for heating fuel reserve funds equivalent to 75 percent of the total amount of prepaid balances in an escrow account with the New Hampshire attorney general's office named as beneficiary. Officials at the AG's office say the provision allows for consumers to be reimbursed if something goes wrong with the oil company. The same bill was initially introduced in the House as House Bill 581 by state Rep. Lee Quandt, R-Exeter, but it stalled in the House when it was retained by Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee because of concerns over a no reporting requirement to show oil companies are complying with the new law. Quandt worked on the bill with Assistant Attorney General James Bofetti in response to the Flynn's Oil case, in which the company went bankrupt in December 2009 and left more than 300 customers of the Exeter-based company without the $554,603 worth of oil they purchased at the start of the winter season. Soon after the bill stalled in the House, Sen. Molly Kelly, D-Keene, approached Bofetti about proposing the bill in the Senate in response to the unexpected closure of Keene oil company Jackson Energy earlier this month. "This bill is a positive move for both consumers and businesses," Kelly said. "We will provide greater protections for consumers that enter into prepaid contracts and allow the industry to maintain its reputation after a few recent and unfortunate calamities" If the bill passes the Senate this week, Kelly said she'd work with the House to clear up any concerns about it. "This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed in a timely manner in order to protect both consumers and fuel distributors and prevent further losses to both parties," Kelly said. Quandt said getting the bill through Senate would be a positive development but admits that he's still expecting a fight from the House. http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110329/NEWS/103290329/-1/NEWSMAP

Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve Multimedia Information

On July 10, 2000, President of the United States Bill Clinton directed Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to establish a 2-million-barrel home heating oil component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the Northeast. The intent was to create a buffer large enough to allow commercial companies to compensate for interruptions in supply or severe winter weather, but not so large as to dissuade suppliers from responding to increasing prices as a sign that more supply is needed. Heating oil companies in Massachusetts oil prices in Ma cheap oil discount heating oil in ma

Morning Heating Oil Market Report for 3/29/2011

 May heating oil prices traded lower during the initial morning hours and reached their lowest levels since March 18th. However, some traders noted that there were a number of positive demand factors facing the distillate market, including weather forecasts that call for cooler temperatures across the northern US and increased diesel demand ahead of the spring planting season. The National Weather Service expected heat-related demand for heating oil to run about 18.8% above normal in the coming week.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/128141/20110329/morning-heating-oil-market-report-for-3-29-2011.htm#ixzz1IZ7NaR7t Heating oil companies in Massachusetts oil prices in Ma cheap oil discount heating oil in ma

Oil Climbs to 30-Month High on Demand Outlook After U.S. Jobs

Oil climbed for a third day in New York as signs of a strengthening U.S. economy boosted bets fuel demand will rise in the world’s largest crude user. Futures advanced as much as 0.7 percent to a 30-month high after an April 1 report showed the U.S. added more jobs than economists forecast last month. Prices advanced 2.4 percent last week as fighting in Libya threatened to prolong supply cuts in Africa’s third largest producer. “The U.S. data paints a positive picture,” Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, said by telephone today. “People are still concerned about Libya, but not overly. If Qaddafi decides to call it a day, then there will be a short, sharp sell-off.” Crude for May delivery gained as much as 80 cents to $108.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Sept. 24, 2008, and was at $108.52 at 3:13 p.m. Singapore time. Prices are up 25 percent from a year ago. Payrolls advanced by 216,000 workers in March compared with a 190,000 gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The jobless rate dropped to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent, the fourth straight decrease, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate was projected to hold at 8.9 percent, according to the median forecast in the survey. Brent Premium Brent oil for May settlement rose 59 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $119.29 a barrel, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract climbed $3.11, or 2.7 percent last week. The European benchmark traded at a premium of $10.73 a barrel over U.S.-traded West Texas Intermediate futures. The difference between front-month contracts in London and New York surged to a record $19.54 on Feb. 21 as unrest spread in the Middle East and North Africa and stockpiles climbed at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI. The gap averaged 76 cents last year. Oil in New York has climbed 28 percent since anti- government protests began Feb. 15 in Libya, cutting output there by two-thirds. The conflict is the bloodiest in uprisings that have toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt and spread to Bahrain, Iran, Yemen and Oman. An emissary of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi met with Greece’s prime minister yesterday and may be seeking a political or diplomatic solution to hostilities, according to Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas. “Upcoming elections in Nigeria amid the intensified unrest” in the Middle East and North Africa region may add to concern over oil supplies, Mark Pervan, head of commodity research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in an e-mailed note. Nigeria Elections Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, will hold general elections a week later than planned, the electoral commission said, after a vote to elect lawmakers ended in chaos on April 2. Parliamentary elections, which had been rescheduled to start today, will take place on April 9, while the presidential vote is set for April 16, Attahiru Jega, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, said yesterday. Nigeria pumped 1.92 million barrels a day in March, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped 9 million barrels a day. Hedge funds more than doubled bullish bets on natural gas as the U.S. economy strengthened and Japan struggled to contain its nuclear crisis, raising speculation that the nation’s demand for the fuel will rise. Funds and other large speculators increased net-long positions, or wagers on rising prices, by 42,060 futures equivalents to 76,985 in the seven days ended March 29, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report. In other markets, bullish, or long, bets on gasoline prices rose 5.6 percent to 61,367 futures and options combined, the CFTC data showed. Net-long bets on heating oil increased by 5.5 percent to 37,625. Heating oil companies in Massachusetts oil prices in Ma cheap oil discount heating oil in ma

Ways to Save on Heating Your Home

As if enduring the various the snow weren’t enough, you’re probably paying more to heat your home this winter. A gallon of home heating oil costs an average of $3.66; that’s a 24 percent increase from this time last year when home heating oil was $2.95 a gallon One way to potentially lower the cost of home heating oil is to join a fuel co-operative. Co-ops use the strength of membership to negotiate better prices with fuel suppliers and distributors. Here are a few New York State based co-ops to check out. Whether you use home heating oil, natural gas, or electricity to heat your home, you can use the web to get information on rebates, subsidies, grants and other ways to lower your energy bills. Websites also offers information on green energy alternatives. Cost-saving tips on websites include: * How to get a free or reduced-cost home energy audit * Find out about the Weatherization Assistance Program * Find out about the ENERGY STAR program which provides subsidies for qualifying families and businesses to make energy-efficient upgrades in homes or offices. The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) helps low-income individuals and families pay their utility bills. HEAP will pay partial benefits directly to the utility company for those who qualify.

Riots in Egypt and cold

Riots in Egypt and cold weather in New England may not seem like they have much in common. The recent turmoil in the Middle East makes it more apparent than ever the region must move quickly to break its addiction to home heating oil. New England, is more dependent on oil for heat than any other region and any big disruption in the global supply chain will translate to big bucks for its families. Energy planners, have been sounding the alarm and lamenting the annual export of $3 billion to $5 billion a year from the state's economy that's spent on fossil fuels, including heating oil, gasoline and diesel. New Englanders button up their homes as technology improves the efficiency of furnaces and motors improve , but the price of oil and gas — driven largely by a burgeoning global demand — isn't going to go down soon, if ever.Steep climbs in costs, not incomes Over the past dozen years, the per-gallon cost of heating oil has jumped by more than 300 percent, and the cost of gasoline, one of the primary fuels for transportation, has gone up more than 200 percent. The burden of the regions fossil-fuel dependence affects impoverished and low-income families the most. Without a vibrant plan to diversify our energy sources, including solar and wind power we are in trouble.. The Energy Information Agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, is projecting crude oil prices will reach more than $100 a barrel within the next five to 10 years. And with that, the price of refined petroleum products like home heating oil will go higher. But even with conservation and efficiency measures, growing demand from places like China and India will push petroleum prices upward. For example, a natural disaster or political unrest in an oil-producing country or a country critical to the global oil supply could have a big impact on our energy prices, especially at the height of the heating season. After the current crisis developed in Egypt, a country that moves about 3 million barrels a day through its Suez Canal, the per-barrel price of oil jumped by $6 in three days. That price shift wasn't triggered by an actual supply disruption, but more by general market concerns over instability in the Middle East. It illustrates the direct connection we have to unstable governments far away. Other energy experts, including those in the oil industry, say that while they recognize the regions current dependence on oil can be a problem, they do not expect any sudden or apocalyptic scenarios for the state. The market will determine prices and that is one reason many have started to broker in different kinds of heating fuels, including pellets and propane. Price will certainly push people to other fuels or to be more efficient. Growing global demand alone will push fuel oil and gasoline to $5 per gallon within the next decade, Kerry predicted, and for each $1 jump in the per-gallon price of oil, add $1 billion per year to the amount of money being exported from our economy. Meanwhile, developments on the world stage will continue to directly affect how much we pay for heat and transportation. Heating oil companies in Massachusetts oil prices in Ma cheap oil discount heating oil in ma

The cost of energy and its effect on families

Demand for petroleum-based energy is increasing world-wide. Based on their support for and repeated approval of subsidies, a majority in Congress would have us believe that we don't have to find and burn far more of our own oil and coal or build nuclear plants.Americans are paying too much for the energy needed to run factories and offices, for motor fuel, and for home heating oil. One of the most pressing problems for businesses, individuals and families is the cost of energy. Compounding the problem of increasing world demand are the unrest and uncertainty in the Middle East and a hostile Venezuelan government. America and the world are approaching a perfect energy storm. The price of Brent Crude recently passed $100 per barrel for the first time in two years. Continual increases in world demand for energy alone guarantees that alternatives will remain a minor part of energy supplies for very long time.What Congress doesn't grasp is the true relative practicality of available sources. The alternate and new sources of energy that politicians favor are too costly, too inefficient or too far in the future to have a meaningful impact on today's requirements. Aside from taxes on petroleum products and despite OPEC's schemes, petroleum prices are largely demand driven. The United States Congress is solely responsible for America's energy crisis and the high costs of fuel. While restricting access to American sources of petroleum for years, Congress has been throwing billions of American tax dollars at alternatives to petroleum. Following decades of "investment," alternatives still supply less than 4% of our energy needs. Congress subsidizes corn ethanol despite the market shortcomings and environmental issues with ethanol. Not only do ethanol and other subsidized alternatives have uncertain futures, they have limited impact on our fuel needs. In fact, alternatives haven't even been useful for frightening world petroleum producers into increasing production and lowering prices in the short term. Even Al Gore doesn't like corn ethanol any longer. Those trucks will significantly add to the demand for refined fuel simply in order to deliver the raw materials needed to refine a fuel inferior to petroleum. And converting and refining biomass will consume even more energy. Due to its water content, ethanol cannot be transported in a pipeline. Once refined, more than 200 million gallons of ethanol would then have to be transported by diesel-fueled tank trucks or rail cars to blending stations every day. Congress understands that the best way to lower energy costs is to increase the available supply of energy sources. Biofuel would be created by using bacteria to break down non-food sources of organic material to make cellulosic ethanol. The material sources would include organic waste products like switch grasses, sawdust, agricultural by-products such as corn husks and stalks, leaves, seaweed and landscape waste, among other materials. America has lots of prairie on which to grow grass and plenty of ocean off three continental coasts, plus the waters around Alaska and Hawaii. Advocates of cellulosic ethanol tell us that, by transforming and refining waste, seaweed and grass, renewable biomass can replace crude oil. Case closed? Not so fast. Politicians and special interests tell us that a newer, increasingly fashionable ethanol scheme, biomass technology, shows promise. America is biomass rich. Farmers and the lumber industry generate tremendous amounts of cellulose-rich waste. Biomass has some serious problems to overcome. Significantly, it takes nearly one and a half times the volume of cellulosic ethanol to produce the same amount of energy as gasoline. The Department of Energy reports that it takes a dry ton of biomass to produce as little as eighty, possibly up to one hundred gallons of cellulosic ethanol. America uses more than 400 million gallons of gasoline a day. US and world-wide demand is increasing. There remain serious environmental concerns with the micro-organisms: If a cheap enzyme becomes available, imagine the damage billions of people in the world's population, including some very irresponsible governments, could do to the globe's forests, fields and oceans. Alternate energy special interests need high petroleum prices. They know that, if petroleum prices were to fall, alternate sources of energy would be even less competitive and the subsidies they depend upon far more difficult to justify. If Congress were to stop picking energy winners and losers and, instead, unleash the brains and determination of American entrepreneurs, our energy problems could be solved. An energy sector unhindered by government regulation and political obstacles to nuclear-power, oil exploration and petroleum refining has the best chance to solve our fuel-scarcity problems in the shorter term as well as the environmental concerns that are so often used to prevent development.. Rather than subsidies, establishing incentives for businesses and individuals to develop smart solutions to our energy needs is reasonable - perhaps an energy X Prize. As in any market, we would all benefit if there were a lot of energy providers and products competing with oil. Given biofuel's energy-content disadvantage, if we wished to produce just half of our current gasoline energy needs, diesel-fueled trucks would have to move 2.5 to 4 million tons of biomass from thousands of sourcing sites over millions of square miles to ethanol plants daily. The availability of practical energy sources is not only an imperative for a healthy economy, energy availability is a matter of national security and defense.There are technical challenges as well. There is currently no known cost-effective, mass-producible enzyme capable of breaking down fibrous materials having complex cellulose molecul es. Scientists and engineers may solve the problem. The inventor(s) of a fuel that economically matches or outperforms petroleum products will become unimaginably wealthy. If the profit motive can't drive a technology, having the government throw billions of additional dollars at grant-driven researchers and marginally relevant alternatives already living off American taxpayers won't do much for our energy independence.The reality is that, compared to national fuel demands, alternate fuels are negligible additions to the energy supply. Alternate energy sources are distractions irresponsibly promoted by politicians of both parties to make us think that they're doing something - and to raise campaign funds. Politicians are doing something, but, so far, little of it is useful to or practical for consumers. Generous energy-sector companies and special interests receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies approve of Congress's political solutions and reward members with campaign cash. One thing is certain: If automobiles could run on hot air, there wouldn't be a gas station within a hundred miles of Washington, DC. The incentive to find a legitimate alternative to petroleum exists - the profit motive. Heating oil companies in Massachusetts oil prices in Ma cheap oil discount heating oil in ma

World oil prices recovered in Asian trade Monday

World oil prices recovered in Asian trade Monday, from losses previous week, as temporary ‘ceasefire’ in Egypt failed.

Light sweet crude for March delivery was seen trading at $89.14 a barrel at 12.00 noon Singapore time while Brent crude was at $100.21 a barrel in London.

In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil rose 0.9 cent to $2.73 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.5 cents to $2.45 a gallon. Natural gas futures for March delivery were down 6.8 cents at $4.24 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In Egypt, Opposition groups held talks with the government on Sunday to resolve political crisis but said their core demand for the removal of the president was not met.

Although Egypt is not a major oil producer, it controls the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean oil pipeline, which together moved over 2 million bpd of crude and oil products in 2009.

Oil was also US Energy Department last week said country’s gasoline stockpiles rose to the highest in almost 18 years as demand decreased.

On Friday, New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for March, gained 46 cents to $91.00 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March rose 43 cents to $102.67 per barrel in London trade. oil prices in Massachusettscheap oil

Heating oil customers given weather warnings for snow

  Demand for heating oil could increase after weather warnings of heavy snow . Flash warnings of severe weather conditions have been given for the north-east today (February 7th 2011). It has predicted that heavy snow will fall in New EnglandResidents in these areas have been advised to be prepared for the bout of cold weather and snowy showers, which might include topping up their heating oil levels so they can be assured their properties remain warm over the next few days. During snow or ice officials recommend people to avoid travelling if possible, or check the Highway Code if they must drive. Wearing several layers of clothing in order to prevent the loss of body heat was also suggested.discount heating oil in ma discount heating oil in Massachusetts

Gasoline Futures Advance on Jobs Report, Business Expansion

 Indicating improvements in the economy and better prospects for fuel demand, gasoline advanced after reports showed a drop in jobless claims and growth for U.S. service industries. Gasoline outperformed crude and heating oil as the Labor Department reported a drop in first-time filings for jobless benefits and continuing claims. Indicating the recovery is broadening service industries in the U.S. expanded in January at the fastest pace since August 2005 Gasoline for March delivery added 0.49 cent to settle at $2.5034 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gasoline crack spread, based on March contracts, widened 52 cents to $14.60 a barrel. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses rose to 59.4, exceeding the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, after December’s 57.1. Readings above 50 signal expansion in the gauge that covers about 90 percent of the economy. Orders were the highest in seven years, while companies showed more confidence to hire. Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 42,000 to 415,000 in the week ended Jan. 29. Economists forecast claims would fall to 420,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Heating oil for March delivery sank 1.33 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $2.7674, after touching $2.804, the highest level for the front-month contract since October 2008. The heating oil crack spread, based on March contracts, and narrowed 24 cents to $25.69 a barrel. Crude oil for March delivery dropped 32 cents to settle at $90.54 a barrel Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, gained 0.8 cent to $3.116 a gallon yesterday Heating oil companies in Massachusetts heating oil