BANGOR — Brian Bishop of Plymouth was window-shopping Tuesday for a wood stove.
Why? Two words.
“Oil Prices,” he said. “I had to call up and get some oil today and it was two dollars a gallon.”
The recent spike in heating oil and kerosene prices has some people, including Bishop, exploring other options.
Firewood dealers from around the state have reported an increase in the number of telephone calls in the last few weeks, as residential heating oil prices climbed 40 percent to an average of $1.78 per gallon Monday. The price of kerosene was up an average of 8 cents to $2.09 a gallon that same day.
“They say they just plain don’t like the price of oil right now,” Wayne Ely, owner of Wayne’s Landscaping and Logging in Belfast, said of the customers who’ve called in recent weeks. “They just want to heat with wood for a while and keep their furnace from kicking on.”
Winter isn’t the best time to sell firewood, and Ely’s is a small operation in Waldo County. But compared with January of last year, when he didn’t sell any wood, this January he sold eight cords, and has already lined up delivery for an unprecedented 40 cords of wood for this summer, he said.
Area firewood dealers contacted by the Bangor Daily News said they have not raised their prices despite what appears to be a modest increase in demand. Firewood usually runs between $100 and $130 a cord — cut, split and delivered. It can be purchased in longer lengths for significantly less money.
An average homeowner heating solely with wood will use between four and five cords of wood in a winter season. If wood is used to supplement a primary source of heat, the same homeowner will use about two cords in a winter.
Mainers are also apparently looking for something in which to burn that firewood.
Wade Beebe, acting manager of the Black Stove Shop in Bangor, said Tuesday that while January and February are generally slow months, the store has been a popular place in the last three weeks.
“It’s a topic in here every day,” Beebe said of the high oil prices. “People are well aware of the price of oil right now, and they’re looking to offset that.”
Other area stove shops also reported an increase in interest — if not in sales — in wood stoves and pellet stoves.
But oil executives are hopeful prices will take a downward turn.
Mike Shea, senior vice president at Webber Oil Co., said Tuesday that the wholesale price of oil coming into New York harbor appears to be going down, at least in the short term.
“Every indication we’ve seen is that it’s coming down,” he said Tuesday of the wholesale price. “It’s been a real dilemma for us. Unlike some wholesalers who have left the market in recent weeks, we have a commitment to a very large retail base, so we can’t say we’re not going to buy oil today.”
The spike in prices is generally attributed to a shortage of crude oil coming into the Northeast, and the accompanying high prices are all the more shocking when compared with last year’s prices, which were well below $1 per gallon.
Shea said today’s residential heating oil price at Webber, one of the area’s largest suppliers, would be $1.79 per gallon, down from Tuesday’s $1.84 per gallon.
Until retail prices come down even more, however, the telephone will likely be ringing at Bangor Gas. The company is expected to begin selling natural gas in Greater Bangor in September.
“I just wish I had gas to sell them now,” said Jon Kunz, manager of marketing and sales at Bangor Gas. Kunz estimated that his downtown Bangor office has received between 20 and 30 additional calls a week since oil prices skyrocketed.
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