Slide 9 of 17
Notes:
Residential heating oil prices reflect a similar pattern to that shown in spot prices. However, like other retail petroleum prices, they tend to lag changes in wholesale prices in both directions, with the result that they don’t rise as rapidly or as much, but they take longer to recede.
This chart shows the residential heating oil prices collected under the State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP), which only runs during the heating season, from October through March.
The spike in New York Harbor spot prices last winter carried through to residential prices throughout New England and the Central Atlantic states. Though the spike actually lasted only a few weeks, residential prices ended the heating season well above where they had started.
Even so, as crude oil and spot product prices moved upward over the summer, residential prices started out the current heating season even higher than where they left off in the spring.
