Price swings in heating oil lash New England

There is no business plan for what New England heating oil dealers and customers have gone through this year.

Thousands of people locked into heating oil contracts as the price of crude soared close to $150 in July, then watched prices descend below $50 even faster. Many are stuck with the contracts they signed and are in for a very expensive winter during the most severe economic downturn in at least a generation.


Now dealers, amid a severe credit crisis, are scrambling to secure money needed to fund operations during the coldest part of winter to keep their most vulnerable customers warm.

Heating oil dealers are for the most part mom-and-pop operations in the Northeast and a bad decision in the current environment could be crippling.

“This is the most extraordinary circumstance I’ve seen in 30 years,” said Chris Keyser, owner of Services in central Vermont that sells fuel products to about 5,000 customers.

In these conditions where oil prices swing wildly from one day to the next, one bad choice could put dealers out of business, said Shane Sweet, president and chief executive of the New England Fuel Institute, which represents about 1,100 dealers.

“If you bet wrong in this environment, there is no room for error,” Sweet said.

USA Today