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In order to produce heating oil, petroleum or crude oil must be refined. Most of the heating oil that is used is in residential homes around the world. Although it may be said that natural gas is the more popular choice of fuel for heating the home, with many people oil is still the favoured choice.

Heating oil prices depend largely on the supply and demand just like with other fuels such as natural gas. The cost of your heating oil is also largely dependent on the trends in global crude oil. If there is more crude oil available than the demand for it, the price of crude oil and of heating oil will fall. This is often seen during the summer when supply of oil is usually high due to decreased demand. On the other hand, crude oil shortages can mean an increase in the price of heating oil. During the winter many more people want to buy crude oil products such as heating oil and this can also drive the prices up.

There are also other factors which can affect the price of heating oil. It is often the case for some people that their heating oil provider will increase their prices excessively and this can cause some customers to seek oil elsewhere. Customers who have decided to stick with their oil supplier may then find a sudden decrease in their oil prices as the company fights to keep them.

Harsh weather can not only make the demand for oil increase but it can also have an effect on the supply routes of the oil. If there is a difficulty getting the oil to wherever it needs to be, prices can rise quite dramatically. The cost of getting oil to more rural homes can be higher and this expense must be met by all customers. But one way to limit the amount you have to pay for your heating oil is to try to get a fixed price for oil as this can save you money.

Getting the home heated up during winter can be very expensive. Electricity and gas prices are very high and show no signs of coming down any time soon. Clever people are switching to heating oil as a fuel though. And when this happens they have to ensure the tanks re always full of cheap heating oil ensuring they can always heat their home in winter.