Heating oil production is soaring as refiners increased output in the last two months. Further, Iraq has indicated its willingness to comply with the six-month limited oil sales agreement originally signed in May. According to officials at the American Petroleum Institute, refiners are churning out higher than normal amounts of heating oil - 3.6 million barrels of oil per day, or 600,000 barrels more than normal during winter months. Iraq is also expected to add 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the worldwide supply as early as December or January. Given increased output of crude as well as heating oil, fuel oil prices should show signs of stabilizing this winter.
Prices represent the weighted average of the three fuel grades unless otherwise noted.
1 Fuel prices represent how much a consumer pays per unit of fuel, typically measured in gallons. Fuel costs, on the other hand, reflect both the price per unit of fuel oil as well as the amount consumed. 2 Salpukas, Agis.