Heating Oil Futures

Heating Oil Futures are standardized, exchange-traded contracts in which the contract buyer agrees to take delivery, from the seller, a specific quantity of heating oil (eg. 42000 gallons) at a predetermined price on a future delivery date.

Heating Oil is very similar to diesel fuel, both of which are classified as distillates When crude oil is refined, about 25 percent of the oil becomes heating oil and about 50 percent becomes gasoline. Heating oil produces approxamately 138,500 British Thermal Units (BTU) per US gallon. Heating oil is primarily used to heat homes in the Northeast.