www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | march 2014 21
Europe and North Africa that was at the world price, which was
higher by $0.75-$0.80 per gallon compared to the American
price and that drove up prices in New England. I did an analy-
sis where we are about $0.65 per gallon higher than we were a
year ago, which doesn't make anybody happy. Marketers have
worked really hard to do their best job of blending and keep-
ing costs down in December, and spent a lot of time driving to
North Carolina to pick up propane.
Going forward we need more storage. The shale gas revolu-
tion was supposed to make the Northeast energy independent,
and it could if we had more storage. So the number one issue
on the plate right now is to encourage New York State DEC
and the governor to approve the Finger Lakes storage project,
which would store 88 million gallons of propane. We could
start filling that in the spring, and have it filled by next winter
with American, affordable propane that would provide price
and supply stability for the whole Northeast. In addition to
that, we are working with some of our member partners and
state officials — specifically in Maine, Connecticut and New
Hampshire — for some additional larger storage facilities that
could be constructed to make supply more readily available.
The Sea-3 facility in Newington, N.H., is working on a
project to expand their rail sidings and add some compressors,
so they can bring propane in by rail and then chill it and store
it for the winter. They have about 2 million gallons of storage
there. It's also getting customers to have adequate storage and
getting them on programs where they are on a "keep-full"
basis, and where they have the ability or the option to lock in
their rates—these things are all very important. The customers
that locked in the rates were not affected at all.
FON: Tell us about the PGANE tradeshow?
Rose: This will be the third Northeast Propane Show. We
hold it in Boxborough, Mass., in the first week in August [Aug.
6, this year] at the Holiday Inn. This is a central location for New
England. The show is really geared toward the service technicians
and drivers as well as frontline supervisors. We've been very suc-
cessful and had over 1,100 attendees the first two times we did it
in 2011 and 2012, and expect a similar turnout this summer. We
have 160 exhibit spaces and as of today we have 60% sold, so I
expect that to fill out. We will have a number of technical semi-
nars that will be presented on hot topics.
l F O N
By KEith REid
Fuels
