Heating Oil

Toilet paper? Check. Eggs? Check.But what about heating oil? Or something to keep the pipes from bursting? Or enough salt to keep the mail carrier from becoming airborne?Baltimore has reacted to this week's cold snap as it usually does: by stocking up and digging in -- at the last minute."It's like grocery stores with the toilet paper," said Richard Phelps, president of Carroll Independent Fuel Co. of Baltimore, who pressed two of his cousins who work in the company's marketing department into driving delivery trucks to meet demand.

NEW YORK -- Crude oil rose above $24 a barrel for the first time in 2 1/2 years yesterday on expectations that an annual increase in heating demand will come with U.S. supplies unusually low."It's like money in the bank," said Charlie Bell, a terminal coordinator for a joint venture of Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc. in Cushing, Okla. The nation's inventory of petroleum is not low enough to cause operational problems, "though it's a little uncomfortable," he said.U.S. oil supplies were 311 million barrels the week ended Sept.

Crews are working to clean up nearly 2,000 gallons of heating oil that leaked from a Timonium school into a stream that feeds the Loch Raven Reservoir.The spill, discovered by a school janitor yesterday morning, killed some fish, but cold weather and a film of ice stopped the oil from entering the reservoir, which supplies drinking water to hundreds of thousands of homes in the Baltimore area, state officials said."We can thank Mother Nature," John Verrico, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said of the spill, which drew dozens of emergency workers to the scene.

It was the typical spring thaw: Hardly anyone burned heating oil, roses were in bloom, air conditioners churned, people wore T-shirts on the street and humidity caused bad hair days from Essex to Edgewater.What's wrong with this picture?It's January.At a time of year when high temperatures normally average 40 degrees, a warm front from the west brought highs to Baltimore ranging from 62 on Wednesday to 68 on Sunday, 1 degree shy of the 1930 record.Yesterday even boasted a summer squall."I just got back from Uruguay, where it was in the mid-90s every day," said Mark G. Ferguson, who serves cappuccino at Starbucks in Mount Washington.

NEW YORK -- Oil prices tumbled to their lowest level in 12 years yesterday on growing worries about oversupply and speculation that Iraq could start exporting again soon.Crude for July delivery fell $1.03, or 8.2 percent, to $11.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement for a contract closest to expiration since Aug. 1, 1986, and the biggest one-day drop since the January 1991 Persian Gulf war. Prices are half what they were in October.Richard Butler, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, said in Baghdad yesterday that he hoped a work schedule he negotiated with Iraq over the weekend could clear up any disarmament issues by August.

Vandals opened a valve at an outdoor pump house in Harford County on Wednesday night, spilling home heating oil onto an oil company's property and into a stream, police said yesterday.Investigators said it could take up to two days to clean the site at Heaps Oil Co. in the 4600 block of Green Marble Road in Whiteford.Police said they did not know how much oil from the 6,500-gallon tank had spilled into the stream. They said an unknown amount had been stolen. The oil company's owner found the spill about 9 LTC a.m. yesterday and notified the county Sheriff's Department and the Maryland Department of the Environment, police said.

About 300 to 400 gallons of oil spilled into Sucker Branch Stream off Rogers Avenue in Ellicott City yesterday after a heating boiler broke at the Rockland Art Center.Environmental cleanup crews say it will take two to three days to clean up the spill.There is no danger to residents' drinking water or to the surrounding wildlife, said David Williams, an emergency responder with the Maryland Department of the Environment.About 8: 30 p.m., residents reported seeing "an oily reddish film" floating on the water's surface, said Lt. Chris Cangemi, a fire spokesman.

A long, cold winter and short supplies are driving gasoline prices to their highest levels in 10 months, pinching not only consumers but also gas station owners, industry experts say.Maryland pump prices have jumped in April by 8.8 cents per gallon of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline, to $1.24.7.That's the highest month-to-month jump since 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the highest price since June 1995, according to the Mid-Atlantic Automobile Association of America.Meanwhile, the federal government predicted that prices could increase 6 cents more a gallon this summer before easing.

The cold is coming back. But shop around before you call the oil truck.While natural-gas prices have stayed relatively steady, a supply squeeze has boosted the wholesale price of heating oil by almost 30 percent since January. The pinch's effect on retail fuel-oil prices, however, varies sharply by supplier.Dealers who secured adequate stocks at pre-February prices are in a better position to sell cheaply than those who ran short and are scrambling for product now, industry analysts said.

A mechanical breakdown on an oil truck yesterday sent hundreds of gallons of heating oil gushing down a sewage drain and spilling into Deep Creek Cove, a thriving breeding ground for many species of Chesapeake Bay fish and wildlife.A Husky Heating Oil Co. driver was delivering 300 gallons to a home in the 900 block of Barracuda Cove Court in Cape St. Claire about 12: 30 p.m. when he saw oil spilling out of a pump at the front of his truck, county fire officials said.About 800 gallons of oil poured into the street, down a storm drain and into the water, leaving an oily slick on everything in sight for hundreds of yards.

Matthew Simmons, Texas author and investment banker and the guy who bet oil will hit $200 a barrel next year, feels pretty good. Oil has doubled to $70 recently as the economy shows signs of life, and "prices do seem poised for the next leg up," he says on the phone. "By sometime a year or two from now, we'll look back and say, yeah, prices were really cheap." Perhaps the leading proponent of the idea that oil is running out, Simmons probably won't win his bet, made with New York Times columnist John Tierney.

The thick, milky white liquid looks like Elmer's glue, though it's greasy to the touch. It has a sweet, alcohol smell. It's not your father's heating oil, to be sure. But it will do the same job, says Cary J. Claiborne, and a lot more cleanly. Claiborne is president and chief executive officer of New Generation Biofuels, a Florida-based startup that's producing fuel from vegetable and soybean oil at a small production plant it set up this year in southern Baltimore. "It's very biodegradable," Claiborne says as he dips his finger into a small bottle holding a sample of a recent batch.

Citgo, the Venezuelan government's U.S.-based oil subsidiary, reversed course yesterday and said it will continue shipments of heating oil to poor families in the United States, including in Maryland. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, head of Citizens Energy, the Boston-based nonprofit that distributes the fuel, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez intervened directly. The announcement came two days after Kennedy said Citgo was suspending fuel assistance, with the company noting falling oil prices and the world economic crisis.

Maryland residents who were hoping to receive 100 gallons of free heating oil through a program sponsored by the Venezuelan government won't receive that benefit this year. Because of dropping fuel prices and the global economic crisis, Citgo, Venezuela's Texas-based oil subsidiary, has indefinitely suspended social programs including support for a heating oil subsidy for the poor. Boston-based Citizens Energy, a nonprofit that administered the program with Citgo, announced the news yesterday.

Maryland families, already struggling with high gasoline and food costs, will face a major new energy challenge within a few months. The price of home heating oil, used by nearly 38,000 low-income families here, is likely to be more than a third higher than it was last winter. Right now, it's more than twice the $2-a-gallon price of three years ago. The increased cost compounds the problems of many low- and moderate-income families who are struggling to pay overdue utility bills and see no relief in sight.

America is addicted to oil. So when the price of oil doubles and then threatens to double again, there are large economic and social consequences. Feeling our pain, politicians want to pressure OPEC to increase production or tap the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. Such cures are unlikely to be effective. The world's oil supply is limited, global demand is growing fast and it's time for Congress to impose a much more efficient use of oil through tougher fuel economy and tighter building standards.

Pre-winter energy update: The cost of heating oil is way up, along with the cost of crude and gasoline. The cost of natural gas is comparatively lower. And the wholesale cost of electricity is down, too, though it won't do you any good. BGE has locked into (higher) winter prices already, and, unlike last year, nobody is offering to undercut BGE's standard price and pass along the favorable wholesale prices. This year, those who heat their homes with natural gas are likely to be better off than people depending on oil furnaces or electric heat.

The record prices Marylanders paid to keep cool last summer will soon give way to eye-popping winter heating bills - no matter what the fuel. Households heating with electricity can expect bills to be about 50 percent more than a year ago - assuming no adjustment for weather variances - as a result of Baltimore Gas & Electric's rate increase in June. The federal government projected last week that average U.S. homes heating with natural gas would pay 10 percent more this winter, while those burning fuel oil could expect to pay 22 percent more.

Bonnie Chandler's blood is still boiling about the partnership of former Congressman Joe Kennedy and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez supplying free heating oil to poor Americans this past winter. Her beef has nothing to do with politics, although some critics have called the free fuel offer a publicity stunt by Kennedy and an attempt by Chavez to embarrass the U.S. government and the man he calls the "devil," President Bush. The 63-year-old Harford County resident also has no gripe against philanthropy: She is, after all, one of those who needs help to heat her home.

CHICAGO -- Fears of crude oil reaching $100 a barrel are receding, at least for now, as the cost continues to plunge. Petroleum prices started falling last autumn and have yet to stabilize, bringing cheaper gasoline and a small but welcome boost to the economy. Warm winter weather in the United States is credited for the latest decrease in the price of crude oil, which has fallen $5 a barrel since the start of the year. But other, more nuanced factors also are working to push down oil prices that reached a record $78 a barrel in August and caused some to worry about prices hitting triple digits.