The point of this pairing is not to pick a winner. It is to show what state oversight does to what a household can find out before it orders, using two similar sized regional businesses as the control.
Side by side
| Shipley Energy | Santa Buckley Energy | |
|---|---|---|
| Publishes a rate | No | No |
| How you get a price | Quote by postcode | Quote by address, placed by phone or through the site |
| Territory | Central and southern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland. | Fairfield and New Haven counties, Connecticut. |
| Plan types | Will-call, Automatic delivery, Budget plan, Price protection, Service plans | Will-call, Automatic delivery, Budget plan, Price protection, Service contracts |
| Delivery minimum | Not published. Confirm at the quote stage. | Not published. Confirm at order. |
| Ownership | Privately held, family controlled, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania. | Privately held, headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut. |
| Register position | Pennsylvania publishes no heating oil dealer register. Utility supply licences are held with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. | Connecticut runs a public credential register through the Department of Consumer Protection. Look the company up there by name before ordering. |
| Checked | 10 September 2026 | 10 September 2026 |
What the state difference means
In Connecticut you can check a dealer's credential, its status and its expiration in a public register before you pick up the phone. That is a genuine consumer instrument and very few states have one.
In Pennsylvania there is no heating oil dealer register to check. A household there has the company's own material, the state utility commission for regulated utilities, and word of mouth. That is not a criticism of any Pennsylvania dealer, it is a description of what is available to check.
Neither company publishes a rate, so on price the comparison is a dead heat at zero. What differs is the amount of verification a household can do before committing, and that is a function of where you live rather than who you buy from.
No company on this page has paid for placement, reviewed the text or been contacted about it. This site sells no oil and runs no lead form.
Primary sources for this page
- Shipley Energy public siteRead on 10 September 2026.
- Santa Buckley Energy public siteRead on 10 September 2026.
- SEC EDGAR company filingsStar Group LP is CIK 0001002590. Global Partners LP is CIK 0001323468. Figures on this site are pulled from the XBRL company facts API rather than retyped from a press release.
- 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.