Every national heating oil figure is a mean across markets that differ by half as much again. Here is the whole spread on one week, cheapest to dearest, which almost nobody publishes because most aggregators only cover the Northeast.
EIA State Heating Oil and Propane Program / W_EPD2F_PRS_NUS_DPG / published 30 March 2026 / checked 23 September 2026 / lag 177 daysthree to six months oldtier A
Last in-season print. The survey pauses after March and resumes in October, so this figure ages all summer.
| State | Price a gallon | Against the national print | 275 gallon fill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraska | $3.97 | down $1.56 | $1,092.30 |
| Iowa | $4.22 | down $1.31 | $1,161.60 |
| Minnesota | $4.25 | down $1.29 | $1,167.38 |
| Wisconsin | $4.32 | down $1.21 | $1,188.83 |
| Michigan | $4.50 | down $1.04 | $1,237.22 |
| Indiana | $4.68 | down $0.86 | $1,287.00 |
| Ohio | $4.73 | down $0.81 | $1,299.65 |
| Kentucky | $4.87 | down $0.66 | $1,339.80 |
| North Carolina | $5.00 | down $0.54 | $1,374.45 |
| Pennsylvania | $5.16 | down $0.38 | $1,419.00 |
| Maryland | $5.28 | down $0.26 | $1,450.90 |
| Virginia | $5.28 | down $0.26 | $1,451.18 |
| Maine | $5.37 | down $0.16 | $1,477.03 |
| New Hampshire | $5.41 | down $0.13 | $1,486.93 |
| Connecticut | $5.55 | up $0.01 | $1,525.15 |
| Vermont | $5.56 | up $0.02 | $1,528.45 |
| Massachusetts | $5.74 | up $0.21 | $1,579.05 |
| Rhode Island | $5.80 | up $0.27 | $1,595.55 |
| New Jersey | $5.84 | up $0.30 | $1,605.45 |
| New York | $5.87 | up $0.34 | $1,615.35 |
| Delaware | $5.91 | up $0.38 | $1,626.08 |
nebraska to delaware / 21 readings
low 3.972$ / high 5.913$
Kerosene scale / 21 state spread / colour is price level, never anything else
Bands are quintiles of the 21 state spread in dollars per gallon. There is no red and green pair anywhere on this site. Direction is carried by the delta glyph in the text, not by colour.
What drives the gap
- Distance from the harbor rack. Product lands at coastal terminals, and the Northeast is close to them, which is the opposite of what most people assume the answer will be.
- Density of oil heating. In the Midwest oil is a minority fuel behind gas and propane, so a dealer serves fewer houses over more miles and the route cost per gallon is different.
- Competition structure. A dense Northeast market has many dealers competing on the same streets, which pushes the other way and partly offsets everything above.
- State taxes and fees, which are not uniform and are included in the survey price where they apply.
- Blend mandates. A state requiring biodiesel content is buying a different product, and the energy content correction applies on top.
Why the Midwest is cheaper anyway
On this week the five cheapest states are all Midwestern and the five dearest are all Northeast or Mid-Atlantic. The gap between nebraska at $3.97 and delaware at $5.91 is $1.94, which is 48.9% of the cheaper price.
The most likely explanation is demand structure rather than logistics. In the Northeast, oil competes with oil. In the Midwest it competes with cheap piped natural gas, and a fuel that has to price against a cheaper substitute cannot carry the same margin.
$533.78 of difference on one tank, for the same fuel, in the same week.
What to do with this if you cannot move house
Use your own state row rather than the national figure as your benchmark. A household in a cheap state benchmarking against the national average will accept quotes that are too high, and a household in an expensive state benchmarking the same way will spend a week arguing with dealers about a number that does not apply to them.
Primary sources for this page
- EIA State Heating Oil and Propane ProgramWeekly residential delivered price of No. 2 heating oil, national and by state. Collected October to March. The survey pauses after the last March print and resumes in October, which is why every federal page shows March data all summer.
- EIA Residential Energy Consumption SurveyHousehold fuel shares and consumption. Used for context, never for a price.
- EIA Natural Gas Monthly, residential priceUS average residential price per thousand cubic feet.
- Alternative Fuels Data Center, biodiesel blendsEnergy content and blend handling guidance for B5 through B100.