It’s hard to think about the furnace when our weather’s hot, but the easing gas prices recently may mean lower home-heating prices next winter. Crude oil supplies are good, and the nation’s major refineries are all up and running at full capacity. DNR analyst David Downing explains with oil prices low, the price of natural gas in turn has come down and so has propane. One thing that could make prices rebound is if the refineries that have been operating full-blast decide to shut down for the maintenance they’ve been putting off. And heating oil costs will also be affected by the price and supply of crude oil months from now.Products from heating oil to highway diesel fuel follow the crude price and supplies are good. OPEC for now is keeping it at around 28 dollars a barrel. Natural gas markets have dropped, to a recent close of two-dollars-and-95-cents compared with a price of ten dollars per million B-T-U during last winter. Utilities that are paying attention are locking in this price now. Downing says all the petroleum fuels trend the same way, so to see what heating oil will do, watch gas prices.
