Tag: oil

No business or industry has gone untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic, but for the home heating oil industry, which saw a record drop in crude oil prices just as the effects of the virus became widespread in the U.S., it’s been a particularly interesting ride.

With a wide range of sizes, services and territories for independent home heating oil companies, the impact has been varied, but most say that as they exit their busy season they’re doing just fine.

Smaller companies, like Russel E. Conrad Inc. in Kutztown, which has only five employees, including owner Patrick Conrad, were able to keep a full staff through the pandemic.

It was a little rougher on larger independent companies, like Apgar Oil in Allentown, where co-owner Jane Apgar Domitrowits had to lay of five of her six technicians because of the cancellations of regular service appointments, which are a large part of her company’s business.

“April was terrible. Everyone was so fearful. No one wanted us in their house, which I understand,” she said.

Apgar kept one service tech on for emergencies. Drivers were all still needed because oil deliveries are contactless and the weather was still cold so heating oil was needed.

Conrad saw a need for service repair over the past couple of months, especially in April and early may when the weather became colder.

“People were appreciating having emergency services,” Conrad said.

At Weaver Fuels in Allentown, Dave Oswald, general manager, said his service repair techs weren’t particularly busy to begin with.

“When this hit there wasn’t a whole lot on the board. It’s kind of our lull for the year,” he said. “Anything of the preventative maintenance variety is just being pushed off.”

What did keep the companies busy was the sudden and dramatic drop in prices. As of May 1, Apgar, for example, was selling heating oil at $1.999 per gallon. Last year the price was $2.649.

The price drop has generated a lot of interest and late-season oil sales.

Apgar said people have been calling her shop asking to pre-purchase their oil for next season, even though their pre-buy promotions haven’t gone out yet.

“I think people are really going to breeze through the pre-pay this season because the price is so low,” she said.

Weaver said the recent cold weather came at a good time for people to get one last delivery of oil for the season and the phone has been ringing regularly with calls from people who normally would have been done buying for the year.

Conrad, said because the prices are so low, people who don’t even need oil are calling him looking to top off their tanks so they can take advantage of the savings while they last.

“They’re hearing the price and asking if they can get 70 or 80 gallons, which some companies won’t even do, but we’ll make the deliveries for them,” he said.

The one point of confusion, said Apgar, was from some people who had seen news stories that the price of crude oil had dropped to zero because companies were running out of places to store it.

“People have actually called us and asked ‘can I have some of that free oil?’” she said.

Unfortunately, there is no free oil, she’s had to explain, but the prices are as low as they’ve been in many, many years.

She’s recommending that people buy early this year to make sure they take advantage of the price. Prices could go lower, she notes that even she can’t time the market.  But, she said buying early is almost always the best bet, and she can’t picture prices dropping much lower.

“This year people should be should be jumping on that like a hot tamale,” she said.