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so they lowered the opec output today and oil dropped to $40 again..
Interesting commentary on the massenergy site today.
Average Prices for Mass Energy Members:
December 17, 2008
If you pay:
20-30 Days = $2.041 Range Hi = 2.14 Low = $1.91
5-10 Days = $1.984 Range Hi = $2.04 Low = $1.86
COD = $1.978 Range Hi = $2.04 Low = $1.86
Budget = $1.989
Why is heating oil more expensive than gasoline? We hear this question now and again since heating oil is cheaper to refine than gasoline, there are no federal taxes and historically heating oil has generally been the same or less than retail gasoline. Analysts suggest that the introduction of high sulfur diesel further segmented the distillate market and Europes commitment to diesel as a transportation fuel and heating oil as a heat source (since it doesn't have huge stores of natural gas) along with the strong Euro has allowed U.S. refiners to garner higher prices by exporting these products. It was even worse last year as incentives in India and China apparently made it cheaper to use lighter diesel fuel than heavier (4 or 6 oil not 2 like heating oil) products thus magnifying further the price compared to historic standards. Unless the Euro crashes and we eliminate regular heating oil as a category and start using Ultra-low sulfur exclusively to cut down on the segmentation this trend is expected to continue for the foreseable future.
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