Cold Weather And The Oil Industry
Sunday, February 7th, 2010The recent cold weather that has been sweeping across the northern hemisphere has been causing havoc with those travelling and with road safety. It has been an extremely difficult time for those needing to travel whether it be by private transport or by using public transport. Because of this there have been a lot of people who cannot make their way into work and other industries are suffering as a result. There is growing pressure also on industries such as the rock salt industry and the natural gas industry. Gritting supplies are dwindling as the cold continues to cause mayhem everywhere. However there is one industry that is thriving because of the cold.
Oil related industries are the ones that are taking advantage of this mayhem. The oil industry has been under pressure over the last year with demand for distillate products being quite low but this has begun to pick up with the turn in the weather. The normal trend for heating oil prices is for it to trade at a certain discount in some months which reduces during the colder months. Usually the reduction is around 0.5% from say November to December. But the difference in the discount from November 2009 and December 2009 fell by nearly one percent.
But although these signs are promising, there is still a long way to go for the unbalanced refining market. The problems facing the oil industry cannot be solved in a matter of weeks. Even if the cold weather were to last right up to April there would still be more needed to rescue the industry. But no matter how long it takes, those in the oil industry must be saying thanks for the cold weather that has begun to head it in the right direction.
Heating ones home in the cold months of winter can cost a fair packet. Fuel such as electricity and gas show no signs of coming down in price. Savvy people are changing over to oil as a home fuel though. After the changeover they have to make sure that the storage tanks are always full of heating oil to make sure they don’t run dry in the cold weather.
