Inventories of distillate fuel oil in the U.S. East Coast are higher now than they have been in the previous three years, reaching 59 million barrels on September 18. Most of the recent increase is in the Central Atlantic region, but inventories are also higher in New England and in the Lower Atlantic, compared with previous late-September levels. Heating oil, a type of distillate fuel oil, is used as a space heating or water heating fuel in about eight million U.S. households, almost all of which are in the Northeast. In the Northeast, 27% of households use heating oil for space heating, while nationwide only 6% of households use heating oil, based on data from EIA’s latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey . The East Coast region (Petroleum Administration for Defense District, or PADD 1) […]