Heating Oil Distributors Fear Tough Winter Amid Credit Freeze

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The tight credit market is forcing weak links in the heating oil supply chain, from wholesale suppliers to homeowners, into the cold.

Borrowed cash infuses nearly every step of the supply networks that bring heating oil from refiners to individual homeowners and businesses. For wholesale suppliers and door-to-door distributors, loans cover the weeks or months between when fuel is purchased and when it is sold to the next step on the chain.


Most companies managed to secure fresh loans to carry them into winter, despite the global credit crisis that has made it difficult for even solid businesses to borrow. But evidence is emerging that not every company succeeded.

“A lot are starting to bounce checks,” said a trader at a wholesale heating oil supplier, who requested anonymity to protect the supplier’s standing in the physical fuel market. “Credit lines are definitely strained.”

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