2 0 1 2 SOU RC EB O OK
PETROLEUM FUTURES, PRICE PROTECTION AND ONLINE ORDERING There is an even split at 50% with this year's respondents between the companies that participate in the futures market and those that don't. Slightly fewer at 46% offer price protection programs. Of those that offer price protection 31% of their customers take advantage of the opportunity. Some 39% of respondents charge a fee for the program and 28% a buyout option. Slightly more than one third of respondents (41%) offer their customers online ordering.
FUEL MARGIN (Table 8) TABLE 8
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL MARGIN ON FUEL OIL? Retail
Commercial Propane
$0.79 ($0.76) $0.54 ($0.50) $1.32
The average fuel margin was fairly consistent among respondents; however, several fuel oil marketers had goals almost twice as high as the average. The number in parentheses reflects remov- ing these companies from the totals. That was not the case with
the propane respondents, which were far more consistent and significantly increased from last year's respondents.
BULK PLANT OPERATIONS Some 51% of respondents operated a bulk plant with an average storage capacity of 137,441 gallons. As with other areas, several large players provide storage capacity considerably beyond the average figure. When the largest players are removed, the average storage capacity comes out to 82,443 gallons. Some 70% of respondents stored other petroleum products in their bulk plants and 80% had substantially upgraded their bulk plants in the past 10 years.
FUEL ADDITIVES (Table 9) All of the respondents used fuel oil additives. The additives were blended in a variety of manners that often overlapped.
TABLE 9
WHERE BLENDED BULKPLANT TANKS
ON TRUCKS DIRECTLY INTO CUSTOMER TANKS
80% 45% 35%
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Email: sabbate@cetane.net 22 DECEMBER 2011 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
