Heating bill likely to stay comfortable

DENVER (AP) - A nasty winter weather outlook is usually enough to put a crimp in your wallet because of anticipated shortages of fuels like heating oil and natural gas.

This year, that is not so likely.

A day after a widely read forecaster predicted major storms for Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and even ice and snow between Dallas and Atlanta, the energy markets acted Thursday with indifference.

Natural gas and heating oil futures rose only slightly after the government released supply data.

There are huge surpluses of both and at this point, much of the stocking up has already been done.

"The good news here is that heating oil distributors and natural gas distributors for that matter, too, were building stocks this past summer when prices were at their lowest," said energy analyst Stephen Schork. "They're sitting on cheap inventory so you're not going to see a major spike in heating costs."

Heating oil futures rose Thursday, but largely on the back of benchmark crude, which is getting a lot of attention from investors because of the weak dollar.

The Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that supplies of natural gas rose again last week and inventories now sit nearly 15 percent above the five-year average. The government will release retail heating prices later in the day.

The amount of crude placed into storage rose as well, but not as experts had expected, bumping prices up somewhat.

Oil prices rose 84 cents to $76.02 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a new high for the year.

Historically, natural gas prices typically hit a peak for the winter in either October or November and there would have to be a tremendous spike for most consumers to wince at utility bills.

Heating oil rose 2.6 cents to $1.9683 a gallon while natural gas for November delivery was flat at $4.442 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gasoline for November delivery gained 3.7 cents to fetch $1.8948 a gallon.

In London, Brent crude rose 23 cents to $73.33 on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Associated Press writers Alex Kennedy in Singapore and George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.