Total Energy News and Insights

What is in Store for us this Winter? After this past winter where it started off very mild and finished with record setting snow and cold, we all want to know what the winter of 2015-2016 will be like. We've had about two to years now of fairly cold winters with decent amount of snow. If you look over the past decade you'll see patterns of very cold winters then followed by mild winters.  Depending on who you ask or where you get your information from, you could see that we'll be getting a mild winter because of a very strong El Nino, starting the mild winter pattern. While the Farmers Almanac is calling for us to get another nasty snowy cold winter, continuing the cold pattern. So who do we believe? In some cases you can believe both, to some extent.  While historically Strong El Nino's like the one that we are suppose to be getting have made the Northeast more mild, go back and remind yourself what 1997-1998 was like.  From all accounts this El Nino w...

One for the Record Books This is past winter was one that was talked about at lengths, the mild start, the massive blizzards, frigged temperatures, and extreme market swings. What did that mean for you as a oil, propane, electric, and natural gas heating customer. Depending on where you fall, it meant a lot. Here in the Northeast we have one of highest percentage of home owners that heat primarily with oil heat, about 40%. This number has been dropping over the years as natural gas has been reaching more and more city and town streets. The price of oil had also been at unfriendly levels and climbing for years, without an help in sight. Until the floor dropped out of the oil market around November or so of 2014. Thanks to the increase price of the barrel the American Shale drillers were able to flood the market while OPEC stayed at their level of producing oil.  After years of the barrel being at, around, and above $100, it steadily dropped to $50-60 in ...