Who Uses Heating Oil?
Of the 111 million households in the United States, approximately 8 million use heating oil as their main heating fuel. Heating homes is the primary use for heating oil, making the demand highly seasonal. Most of the heating oil use occurs during October through March. The area of the Country most reliant on heating oil is the Northeast.
Some customers try to beat rising winter prices by filling their storage tanks in the summer or early fall when the prices are likely to be lower. However, most homeowners do not have large enough storage tanks to store the full amount needed to meet winter demands. Homeowners may have to refill their tanks as many as 4 or 5 times during the heating season, making them vulnerable if prices rise or spike.
Heating Oil Is Important to Consumers in the Northeast
Of the 8 million households in the United States that use heating oil to heat their homes, 6.4 million households, or roughly 80%, are located in the Northeast region of the country. In other regions, older homes have been converted from oil heat to gas heat, and oil no longer has a noticeable share of the new home construction market. Thus, the seasonal increases in inventories and sales of heating oil are largely confined to the Northeast.
In 2008, 4.3 billion gallons of heating oil were sold to residential consumers in the Northeast; this is 84% of total residential fuel oil sales.