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Energy analyst warns diesel, furnace oil prices will keep rising

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An increase in diesel oil prices in Nova Scotia has some worried about how much it will cost to heat their homes this winter.

Petroleum industry analyst Patrick DeHaan expects the price of both diesel and furnace oil to continue their upward trend.

“Global diesel inventories are at extremely low levels, pushing prices up,” says DeHaan. “Gasoline prices are starting to trail off as demand goes down. At the same time, diesel and heating oil, the demand is starting to go up and against the backdrop of extremely tight inventories.”

Diesel oil took a 9.3 cent jump overnight Friday, to a new maximum of 198.7 cents per litre in Halifax Zone 1. Meanwhile, the price of gas dropped 5.3 cents a litre to a minimum of 164.3 cents in the same area.

According to Natural Resources Canada, the average price for a litre of furnace oil in the country was 182.2 cents as of Tuesday, compared to 120.6 cents at the same time last year.

As the cost of home heating fuel rises, federal and provincial government incentives are encouraging a number of homeowners to find other ways to heat their homes.

“We are seeing a lot of people completely remove fossil fuels from their home 100 per cent and going to 100 per cent heat pumps,” says heat pump expert Mike Wadsworth.

DeHaan says he doesn’t expect any steadying of prices until there is a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

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