WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it would sell approximately 2 million barrels of heating oil from its Northeast reserves later this week.
The DOE said the oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve would be sold from the Hess Terminal in New Jersey starting Thursday to make way for oil that complies with the ultra-low sulfur specification mandated by New York and other Northeast states.
The current stockpile of higher-sulfur oil has up to 2,000 parts per million compared to 15 ppm for the ultra-low sulfur product.
Bids will be accepted online and sales will continue until all 2 million barrels are gone, the DOE said in a written statement. Heating oil prices for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange saw a healthy increase in January with support coming from the harsh U.S. winter and market anxiety over the political upheaval in Egypt.
