By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

After steadily declining for months, the price of heating oil in Maine rose 2 cents last week, reaching a statewide average of $2.29 per gallon.

The average for No. 2, the fuel that heats about 80 percent of the state’s homes, is 40 cents higher than it was a year ago.

Prices around Maine varied widely for oil, with a low of $2.06 found by the Office of Energy Independence and Security in southwestern areas in its weekly domestic heating survey. The spread between the high and low price was 53 cents per gallon, or $10.609 on a 200-gallon fill-up.

The increase in the cost for No. 2 was the first since October. Prices spiked in September following Hurricane Katrina, then began falling steadily.

Prices for kerosene and propane were unchanged, but both are up from this time last year. Kerosene, averaging $2.68 per gallon, is 51 cents higher than it was 12 months ago; propane, at $2.20 per gallon, is up 17 cents.

The run-up in the price of No. 2 comes at a time when Northeast inventories are 26 percent higher than a year ago. Normally, higher inventories would translate to lower prices.

The price for crude oil was climbing over the past week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in part due to predicted East Coast snowstorms and colder temperatures.

Besides heating commodities, the price of retail gasoline also has trended upward over the past week.