As temperatures drop this week, New Jersey heating oil users worry about the affordability of keeping warm.

Crude oil is the main source of heating oil, just as it is for gasoline. And crude prices have been running around the world above 110-dollars-a-barrel lately. Eric Degesero of the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey says political turmoil in the middle east and trouble with Iran and Nigeria are exploited by oil traders trying to guess future oil prices. Degesero says, “whatever the little, ‘hiccup’ that they look to exploit at any given period of time to justify running up the price is what we are having to encounter.” He says the price of heating oil has trended up over the past few weeks to what we see now.

Another oil market analyst puts it this way,”a mix of war rhetoric and local troubles in key oil states are factors driving up the price of crude. And that translates to higher prices at the pump. Now that logic suggests that prices will fall when the news calms down.”

Jersey heating oil prices are around four-dollars-a-gallon right now, despite the fact it has been a mild winter for the most part, with more mild temperatures on the way by week’s end. Degesero says he hopes heating oil customers will see some price mitigation if mild weather continues and demand softens.

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