I heat my house with oil. I always get a “pre-buy” agreement to lock in a price for the winter. Last year it was just a bit more than $3.00 a gallon and I bought 1100 gallons at that price and it got me through the winter. At the moment, the price is a bit lower than $6.00 and the situation is so unstable that my oil company is not able to offer any sort of pre-buy. I don’t think anyone can predict what is going to happen.
What are NYME Heating oil futures priced at?
That is how your oil delivery company typically offers those fixed pricing. The only other way is to actually buy the oil in the summer when it is cheaper and store it until next Dec-March.
Most oil companies do not have the money or storage capacity to do the later. So, the only way to price lock is to buy the contracts monthly to cover what you have sold.
Here is the link to the contract pricing:
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/energy/refined-products/heating-oil.quotes.html
The pricing is per gallon delivered to New York Harbor. Your oil company should know the adder per gallon to get to your general area. What is curious is the front months are trading at a premium to the winter months. This is not Normal. Typically January is the peak demand/usage/price for heating oil. The market perceives it is going to go down after a high in October.
I am in NH. Right on the MA border. I used to do this with a local heating oil company. I would get a group of people together and we would all commit to buy all our oil from that company on a locked in price. I do not recall what the adder to my area. I would guess it is about $.30. Plus, the oil delivery company needs to a profit.