AUBURN - A program designed to help residents get cheaper heating oil next winter probably won't work, according to city officials.

Heating oil companies have been reluctant to take part in Auburn's aggregate heating oil program, according to acting City Manager Laurie Smith. Only one company submitted a bid this week, and it was full 33 cents higher than the going price of heating oil.

"Based on these early results, I just don't think this program will yield the type of results citizens are looking for," Smith said.

What's worse, the residential program might have pushed the price up for municipal heating oil. The lowest municipal bid, to provide 1.1 million gallons to the cities and schools in Lewiston and Auburn, the towns of Poland and Minot and Androscoggin County, came at the current market rate.

"That number is quite high, higher than we'd expected," Smith said. Both bids were rejected, and they'll be resubmitted later this summer.

She expects Auburn's councilors will take up the matter at their next meeting, on June 2.

"But I want to strongly urge residents to do whatever is most appropriate now, and not wait for the city to come up with a deal for them," she said.

Auburn's City Council decided to let residents in on the deal earlier this month. Smith said 597 residents called Auburn Hall to register with the city, agreeing to purchase 545,764 gallons.

Smith said the bids had to be broken into two categories, one for the cities with huge oil tanks of their own, and a second for residents with smaller 275-gallon tanks.

Bids for residents came in at $4.709 per gallon, Smith said. Municipal bids came in at $4.37 per gallon. Maineoil.com, a Web site that tracks the price of heating oil, listed the average gallon price in the Lewiston-Auburn area at $4.375.

The complexity of dealing with nearly 600 customers on a single bid could have soured oil dealers, Smith said.

"Delivery costs are just one of the problems," Smith said. It's much easier to fill one of the big tanks, with one trip and one tanker. But the oil delivery trucks use much more fuel on their own delivering the oil in dozens of smaller portions to customers across the city, she said.

Some companies were concerned about customers' credit, she said. The city did take names and phone numbers for potential customers, but that's very different from finding out whether customers can afford to pay for the oil.

"The companies don't know the credit worthiness of these customers, and they have no guarantee that they will actually get paid," she said. "The reality is, this oil market is unlike any oil market at any other time, and people are having a difficult time figuring out what's going to happen. There are too many questions, for oil companies and customers."