heatingoilcost.com

The long record

US heating oil price history

The short answer

The residential average ran $2.47 a gallon in the 2020 to 2021 season and $4.82 in 2022 to 2023. The last print of the 2025 to 2026 season was $5.54 on 30 March 2026. Each figure is a survey average, not a quote.

Cheapest season

$2.472020-21

Dearest season

$4.822022-23

Latest print

$5.54per gallon

Print age

177days

The federal residential survey has run since the 1990s and it collects only during the heating season. What follows is the record it has produced, by calendar year and by season. Season averages are the more useful of the two, because a calendar year average mixes two different winters.

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.

28 Nov 2022 to 30 Mar 2026 / 104 readings

low 3.444$ / high 5.566$

104 weekly prints, colored by position in the range. The gaps you can feel in the shape are the summers, when the survey does not collect.

Kerosene scale / 104 week window / colour is price level, never anything else

$3.444 to $3.597bottom fifth of the range
$3.597 to $3.806second fifth
$3.806 to $4.044middle fifth
$4.044 to $4.268fourth fifth
$4.268 to $5.566top fifth, dearest

Bands are quintiles of the 104 week window 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.

By heating season

SeasonAverageLowPeak275 gallons at the average
2019-20$2.92$2.42$3.12$802.73
2020-21$2.47$2.13$2.90$679.53
2021-22$3.74$3.18$5.13$1,027.95
2022-23$4.82$4.07$5.90$1,325.78
2023-24$4.11$3.96$4.39$1,130.52
2024-25$3.66$3.47$3.94$1,007.60
2025-26$4.01$3.53$5.57$1,103.03
October to March seasons on the weekly residential series. A season average is the mean of the weekly prints in that season, not a household's actual paid price.

By calendar year

YearAverageWeeks surveyed275 gallons
2017$2.7221$748.00
2018$3.2127$881.93
2019$3.0925$849.48
2020$2.5426$697.13
2021$3.0326$834.08
2022$4.6926$1,288.65
2023$4.2926$1,179.47
2024$3.7632$1,034.00
2025$3.7228$1,024.10
2026$4.3613$1,199.55
Calendar year means of the weekly residential series. The week count is shown because a calendar year contains parts of two seasons and never a full fifty two weeks of survey.

What the record says about shocks

The 2021 to 2022 season averaged $3.74 but peaked at $5.13. The following season averaged $4.82 with a peak of $5.90. The unwind then took two full seasons, through $4.11 and $3.66.

The 2025 to 2026 season averaged $4.01 with a low of $3.53 and a peak of $5.57. That is a wider band inside one season than the two seasons before it managed between them, and the peak arrived in March rather than January.

A $2.04 range inside one season is $561.00 on a 275 gallon fill.

All figures are nominal dollars. Where a figure on this site is described as inflation adjusted it names the deflator. None on this page are.

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.
  • BLS Consumer Price IndexUS deflator source, same rule.
  • EIA Winter Fuels OutlookPublished each October alongside the Short-Term Energy Outlook. Forecast household heating expenditure by fuel and region.
  • EIA New York Harbor ULSD spot priceDaily wholesale barge price. Published on this site only as a labelled wholesale proxy and never as a retail price.