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October 22, 2026

Trump plan to tap heating oil reserves unlikely to affect high fuel costs

A Trump Administration plan to release heating oil from the nation’s emergency reserves will not add enough fuel to the market to curb soaring prices, analysts told reporters this week.

On Oct. 21, Department of Energy officials outlined a plan to loan up to 315,000 barrels of heating oil – about a third of the U.S.’s million-barrel stockpile – by Nov. 13. As of early October, heating oil prices had risen 34 percent compared to the same time last year due to tighter global fuel markets because of military strikes against refineries in the Middle East and Russia.

Analysts told news outlets that the amount being released from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve is not likely to significantly affect prices. Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor for Gulf Oil, called it a “puzzling and probably inconsequential move” in an Oct. 21 social media post.

“The volume is too small relative to consumption to significantly change supply,” William O’Neil, an analyst at S&P Global Energy, told the New York Times.

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