LI home fuel oil prices highest in years

The price of home heating oil on Long Island climbed in the week ended Monday to its highest in more than three years, $4.242 a gallon, as fears of Mideast unrest inflated prices of crude oil and refined fuels.

The new price at full-service dealers tops last season's high of $4.238 and is the highest since Sept. 8, 2008, in the survey done by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Only warm weather has kept this from being the most expensive winter ever for homeowners who heat with oil; although the new price is 11.3 percent higher than a year earlier, consumption is down by about 35 percent from last winter, as estimated by the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, based on temperature readings from the National Weather Service at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton.

Still, Long Island social services officials have reported increases in requests for help with fuel bills under the federally funded Low Income Energy Assistance Program.

Petroleum industry experts say prices are rising because of tensions over Iran's nuclear program, including the possibility of military action by Israel to disrupt it and Iran's threat to block oil shipments in the region in response to sanctions.

The rebellion in Syria is adding to concerns, even though that nation is not a major oil producer. "The market fears a wider escalation of violence spreading through the Middle East," said Andy Lipow, president of Houston consulting company Lipow Oil Associates Llc.

Similar factors also are causing gasoline prices to rise. Regular averaged $3.929 a gallon Wednesday on Long Island, the AAA said, up about 39 cents since just before New Year's.

John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Llc in New York, a hedge fund specializing in energy, said another factor is Europe's cold winter.

The record average price for heating oil on Long Island is $4.93 a gallon, set in July 2008. Last winter, Long Islanders paid an average of between $3.12 a gallon when the heating season began in October and $4.238 at the season's end in April.

In New York trading Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose to a nine-month high of $106.28 a barrel. Bloomberg News says futures have gained 14 percent in the past year. The price for U.S. crude oil has risen from about $85 in October.