Lower heating oil consumption means less demand. That combined with lower domestic demand on gas, and higher global refining should equal lower prices domestically.
Hussein and the oil cartels are working on it though/s
What I find interesting is how divergent petroleum and gas usage have become. According to the chart, they remained relatively in sync from 1992 to 2007 with the exception of 1998-99 when petroleum usage spiked above gas usage. Now the gap is in the opposite direction and we are in a steeper decline with gas usage higher than petroleum usage.
There seems to be no doubt that there is a direct correlation between the state of the economy and oil/gas usage. The chart portrays a much more gloomy picture of the economy than the happy talk we have been hearing lately. And we have the anomaly of higher gas prices despite reduced demand. The declining value of the dollar, increased global demand from the emerging economies, and the situation in the ME contributes to the rising cost of oil. If this trend continues, this is not good news for the future no matter how one tries to spin it.
Unluckily, petroleum based fuels pricing is not as simple as that, mainly because everyone else on the glbe is tied to the same situation.
The best escape from being pegged to world pricing will be moving to Natural Gas as transportation fuels, because we have a very long term abundance of NG.