Heating oil
Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers for home heating and in other buildings.
Historically, the legal difference between diesel and heating oil in the United States has been sulfur allowance.
The heating oil futures contract trades in units of 1,000 barrels (160 m3) with a minimum fluctuation of $0.0001 per gallon and (for the USA) is based on delivery in New York Harbor.
[5] The Department of Energy tracks the prices homeowners pay for home heating fuel (oil and propane).
There are also a number of websites that allow home owners to compare the price per gallon they are paying with the Department of Energy data as well as other consumers in their area.
Heating oil is mostly used in the northeastern and northwestern urban United States and a strong market presence in rural areas as well.
Many villages may use buying groups to order heating oil at the same time, thereby accessing lower costs.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have referred the UK oil market to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for review.
[9] It is a criminal offence to keep a tank that violates these regulations, and the owners are liable for fines, penalties and any costs incurred as a result of cleaning up oil spills.
The regulations are designed to minimise the risk of damaging pollution and reduce the likelihood of oil being stored in hazardous environments, such as a building without proper fire safety measures.
They state that the storage tank should be of "sufficient strength and structural integrity to ensure that it is unlikely to burst or leak in its ordinary use".
If a tank is single skinned and smaller than 2,500 litres, it must be given an individual site pollution risk assessment.
The document also states that the tank should be situated at least 1800mm away from any potential hazards, such as doors, windows, appliance flue terminals, non-fire rated buildings such as garden fences, and at least 760mm from non-fire rated smaller structures such as wooden fences.
