With the first day of fall just days away, the price Iowa’s most popular heating fuel is down. Iowa Department of Natural Resources energy analyst Brian Crowe tracks the price of natural gas. Crowe says natural gas is selling for a much lower price than it did at this time last year due to high stockpiles.
Heating oil on the other hand costs more this year than last due to a lower stockpile. Crowe says natural gas was trading at $6.35 cents a B-T-U, down 95 cents from August. Heating oil was selling for $2.71 cents a gallon, 10 cents higher than last month and up 28 cents from last year at this time. Another fuel that’s used for heating, and also important to farmers, has shot up in price.
Crowe says propane is selling for record wholesale prices due to lower than expected stockpiling and the higher price of oil. He says last year the stockpiles came up in September, which drove the prices down in October, but he says the stockpiles aren’t going up as fast this year. Propane was selling for an average of one dollar 67-cents a gallon, nine cents higher than last month, and 22 cents higher than last year.