Oil prices on the rise as winter plods on
By: Eric Russell
Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA, Maine — The statewide average price of heating oil has gone up for the 10th consecutive week and now sits 67 cents higher than this time last year.
Mainers are paying an average of $3.35 per gallon for No. 2 heating oil, an increase of about 25 cents over one month ago. John Kerry, director of Maine’s Office of Energy Independence and Security, said consumer demand and instability in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East are the main contributing factors to the spike.
“It’s important to remember that petroleum is a worldwide commodity. When demand increases in other parts of the world, it affects us, too,” he said.
As usual, prices are higher in northern and eastern Maine, primarily because it costs more to transport the fuel to those areas, but also because competition is lacking, Kerry said. The lowest actual heating oil price found in the most recent OEIS survey was $3.12 per gallon in southwest Maine. The highest price, $3.53 per gallon, was found in northern Maine…
