The average retail price of home heating oil in Massachusetts has reached $6.12 a gallon, which means filling a standard 275-gallon tank now costs more than $1,500. In Maine, prices are running close to $6. Prices in much of New England are more than $2 a gallon above last winter’s levels, and electric and gas heating bills are expected to rise too, though oil has moved the most, [the Boston Globe reported](<https://bostonglobe.com/2026/10/06/business/home-heating-oil-prices/>).
For households that buy oil by the tankful, the arithmetic is a doubling. Lisa Furman, a community therapist who owns a home in Hancock County in northern Maine, expects to pay $3,400 for heating oil over the next 10 months, against the $1,500 she is used to spending per season. She earns too much to qualify for federal heating assistance, so she is cutting other expenses and putting more purchases on a credit card. “Now you’re going to double my heating oil bill? This is just a slap in the face,” she told the Globe. “There’s no reason for this.” She described her position as “this really weird, middle class place that I fall into.”
Independent federal data confirms the level if not the exact figure: the Energy Information Administration’s [weekly residential survey](<https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_wfr_a_epd2f_prs_dpgal_w.htm>) shows recent New England readings above $5.50 a gallon, with Massachusetts at $5.74 and Maine at $5.37. The agency’s last published reading of the prior season, closing March 30, showed Massachusetts at $3.65 and Maine at $3.52. The two series sample different dealers, but they agree on the point that matters: most of the increase arrived over the spring-to-autumn run.
The chain, upstream to the boiler
The price increase runs through every tier of the supply chain, according to Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association: crude supply has been unsteady since the Iran war began, which leaves refineries less able to stock wholesalers, who in turn have less product for the retailers who deliver to homes. Ferrante notes costs were already rising before the conflict; the war is an accelerant on an existing trend, not the original cause. He described this winter, layered on top of inflated prices for other household needs, as the “most troubling scenario” he has seen in decades, for consumers and for small retailers who cannot absorb the carrying costs. “This is going to be a very expensive winter,” he said.
Retailers are offering two hedges. Cap-price contracts let a customer commit to a fixed price per gallon for the season regardless of week-to-week swings; budget plans spread payments across months instead of requiring $1,500 per tank refill. Neither lowers the total cost; they trade price risk for certainty, or cash-flow pressure for a monthly bill.
The $75,000 exit
The longer-term exit from heating oil is a heat pump conversion, and its price explains why uptake will not dent this winter’s demand. Matt Fitch, a software engineer in Pembroke, Massachusetts, got a quote of $75,000 from an HVAC company to convert his home. Even with a rebate from Mass Save, the state’s efficiency program, he cannot pay that this season, so he will absorb the oil prices. “We can technically afford it,” he said. But “it comes out of other parts of the budget.”
Assistance programs were undersized relative to costs even before the spike. In Massachusetts, more than 150,000 households received help last winter through the Home Energy Assistance Program, and Governor Maura Healey is expanding the fund to an additional 150,000 households. In northern Maine, which depends on heating oil more heavily than most of the country, the average household HEAP award this season is about $700, said Jason Parent, chief executive of Avec Community Action, one of the region’s assistance agencies. At close to $6 a gallon, $700 buys roughly 117 gallons — barely half a standard tank, delivered once, in a climate where a household needs multiple refills to get through winter. The maximum gross income for a Maine household of four to qualify this season is $73,213.
Demand for that inadequate help is up anyway. Avec processed 10,000 applications last season and has its qualifying appointments booked into January; it and other Maine agencies have previously had to cap applications when demand outran funds, Parent said, and other energy assistance programs have seen funding reduced or eliminated. “All signs point to this being the most challenging year we’ve had,” he said. His practical advice for the cold months: wear more layers indoors, be wary of space heaters and improvised heat sources because of fire risk, and in an extreme pinch, stay with relatives or friends who have heat.
$4 billion, held
The political response is a funding fight. Healey has declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, released additional funds for low-income energy bills, and this week announced a new assistance fund aimed at middle-income households that rely on heating oil — the Furman bracket, too well paid for the federal program and too squeezed to absorb a doubling. Separately, US senators from New England and elsewhere are pressing the Trump administration to release most of the $4 billion in already-allocated federal heating assistance, known as LIHEAP, before the coldest months; senators also signed a letter last week demanding an additional $3 billion in emergency LIHEAP money, and Healey sent a similar letter to congressional leaders. “We’re just going to keep looking for all the ways that we can try to help people,” Healey said. “Particularly when it comes to their energy needs and energy costs.”
Parent doubts the money in hand will suffice: “It’s very challenging to know that this is the potential of the outcome of what we’re up against this winter.” The numbers to watch now are three: whether the $4 billion moves before January, when Avec’s appointment book is already full; whether crude supply stabilises; and whether retail oil, now above $6 in some samples, sets a ceiling for what a tank of heat costs in New England this year.