Mainers are paying $1.01 less for their home heating oil today than they were a year ago.
The $2.27 statewide average for No. 2 oil found by a state survey released Monday afternoon is also 4 cents cheaper than the average that Mainers paid for the price of warmth two years ago.
Why? “Demand for oil nationwide dropped to its lowest level in 12 years,” said John Kerry, director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security, the agency that conducts the heating fuels survey.
Kerry said the drop in demand is “the largest year-on-year percentage decline since 1980. There are just fewer ships in the ocean, trucks on the roads and planes in the sky – all leading to a dramatic drop in demand.”
Kerry said the average price for No. 2 oil is down more than $2 from the record high posted in June.
Monday’s survey found that the average price for No. 2 has fallen 9 cents just since last week.
And bargains can be found by consumers willing to make some calls. A low price of $1.84 per gallon – a discount of 43 cents from the statewide average – was found at some southwestern and central Maine oil dealerships.
An estimated 80 percent of the state’s homes are heated with No. 2.
Even people who use kerosene are seeing savings. The statewide average price for kerosene, which usually tracks the price of diesel fuel, was down to $2.76 per gallon on Monday. A year ago people paid $3.67 for kerosene on average; the high was $3.77.
A global economic downturn is behind the collapse of world oil prices, a major driver of costs for heating oil, kerosene and gasoline.
On Monday, the state OEIS said the price of West Texas Intermediate crude was $38.42 per barrel. While that was nearly a 15 percent increase over the price of crude a week earlier, it’s only a fraction of the $96.10 charged per barrel in December 2007. A year earlier, on Dec. 26, 2006, crude was trading at $61.03 a barrel.
By the close of trading Monday, crude had climbed to $40.02, largely as a result of rising tension in the Middle East following fighting between Israelis and Gaza Strip militants.
Heating fuel prices
As of Dec. 29, 2008
No. 2 oil
Statewide average: $2.27
Low: $1.84
High $2.50
Kerosene
Statewide average: $2.76
Low: $2.61
High: $2.90
As of Dec. 31, 2007
No. 2 oil
Statewide average: $3.28
Low: $2.99
High: $3.41
Kerosene
Statewide average: $3.67
Low: $3.61
High: $3.77
As of Dec. 27, 2006
No. 2 oil
Statewide average: $2.31
Low: $2.20
High: $2.37
Kerosene
Statewide average: $2.72
Low: $2.61
High: $2.72
(Source: Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security)
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