U.S. to Tap Heating Oil Reserves Ahead of Midterm Elections New York Times (Online) Aruni Soni With soaring heating oil prices becoming a political issue, the United States said on Wednesday that it would tap its strategic reserves to help ease the energy crunch. But analysts say the effort is unlikely to provide meaningful relief. The plan covers a loan of up to 315,000 barrels of heating oil, or nearly a third of the one million barrel supply in the government's Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve , the Department of Energy said in a statement . The department will hold a bidding process for fuel retailers and terminal holders, and deliveries are scheduled to be completed by Nov. 13. Companies that borrow fuel from the reserve will have to return the same volume before the next heating season, the statement said. “This is a temporary measure to solve a temporary supply disruption,” the secretary of energy, Chris Wright, said in the statement. Heading into the midterm elections, Americans are facing higher heating oil prices than ever before. This issue is particularly stark in Maine , where Susan Collins, a Republican, is defending her Senate seat against Troy Jackson. Heating oil prices jumped to a national average of $6.14 a gallon the week of Oct. 12 from $6.05 the week before, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Heating oil prices have skyrocketed 50 percent since the war in Iran started at the end of February. After the Energy Department's announcement, the November contract for heating oil fell 3 percent to $4.77 a barrel. In Maine, heating oil prices are as high as $6.30 a gallon . In parts of New York, prices are even higher, crossing $6.50 a gallon. “Approximately half of Maine households rely on fuel oil to heat their homes, and I have repeatedly urged the administration to use every tool to increase supply and lower energy prices,” Senator Collins said in a statement on Wednesday. But analysts said the announced release is unlikely to provide much relief to Americans worried about the soaring costs of heating their homes this winter. “The volume is too small relative to consumption to significantly change supply,” said William O'Neil, an analyst at S&P Global Energy. The Energy Information Administration does not have recent data on heating oil demand, but it reported that Americans consumed about 193,000 barrels of heating oil a day in 2021. More than 80 percent of the heating oil used in the United States is concentrated in the Northeast. In the winter of 2023, 4.79 million households used oil as their primary heating fuel, according to the Energy Information Administration. Many homes use oil because switching to a different source of heat can be expensive or difficult. Rural and suburban areas often do not have access to natural gas pipelines.