Heating oil, or oilheat, also known in the United States as No. 2 fuel oil and elsewhere as "red diesel", is a low viscosity, flammable liquid petroleum product used to fuel building furnaces or ("boilers"). It is commonly delivered by tank truck to residential, commercial and municipal buildings and stored in above-ground storage tanks ("ASTs") located in the basement or adjacent to the building. It is sometimes stored in underground storage tanks (or "USTs"), but less often than ASTs. This is due to the fact that a large proportion of heating oil customers are in the northeastern United States, where basements are common, as are concerns over potential environmental problems. Heating oil is less commonly used as an industrial fuel or for power generation. Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. ... The pitch drop experiment at the University of Queensland. ... Flammable or Flammability refers to the ease at which a substance will ignite, causing fire or combustion. ... Fuel is any material that is capable of releasing energy when its chemical or physical structure is changed or converted. ... A furnace is a device for heating air or any other fluid. ... A Shell Jet A refueller truck on the ramp at Vancouver International Airport. ... A municipality or general-purpose district (compare with: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government. ... The states in dark red are usually included, while all or portions of the striped states may or may not be considered part of the Northeastern United States. ...

Heating oil is usually colored by addition of fuel dyes to distinguish it from highly taxed road-use diesel. Red dyes are usually used, resulting in its "red diesel" name in countries like United Kingdom. Solvent Yellow 124 is added as a "Euromarker" since 2002 in European Union. Fuel dyes are dyes added to fuels, as in some countries it is required by law to dye a low-tax fuel to deter its use in applications intended for higher-taxed ones. ... A fuel tax (also known as a petrol tax, gasoline tax, gas tax or fuel duty) is a sales tax imposed on the sale of fuel. ...

Heating oil is very similar to diesel fuel, and both are classified as distillates. It consists of a mixture of petroleum-derived hydrocarbons in the 14- to 20-carbon atom range. That is, heating oil's chemical formula is usually either C₁₄H₃₀, C₁₅H₃₂, C₁₆H₃₄, C₁₇H₃₆, C₁₈H₃₈, C₁₉H₄₀, or C₂₀H₄₂. During oil distillation, it condenses at between 250 °C and 350 °C. Heating oil condenses at a lower temperature than the heavy (C20+) hydrocarbons such as petroleum jelly (also known by the well-known brand name Vaseline), bitumen, candle wax, and lubricating oil, which condense between 340 °C and 400 °C. But it condenses at a higher temperature than kerosene (jet fuel), which condenses between 160 °C and 250 °C. Distillation is a means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... Hydrocarbons are refined at oil refineries and processed at chemical plants A hydrocarbon is a chemical compound that consists only of the elements carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). ... Fractional distillation is the separation of a mixture into its component parts, or fractions, such as in separating chemical compounds by their boiling point by heating them to a temperature at which several fractions of the compound will evaporate. ... Vaseline is a well-known brand of petrolatum (petroleum jelly) originally produced by Chesebrough-Ponds, which was purchased by Unilever in 1987. ... Bitumen Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. ... Paraffin is a common name for a group of high molecular weight alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2, where n is greater than about 20, discovered by Carl Reichenbach. ... Mineral oil or liquid petrolatum is a by-product in the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline. ... It has been suggested that RP-1 be merged into this article or section. ... Jet fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in jet-engined aircraft. ...

For efficient burning, the oil is pressurized through a calibrated orifice; the atomized droplets mix with air and ignite, often with help from a high-voltage spark. Heating oil produces 19,500 BTU per pound (45 MJ/kg) and weighs 7.2 pounds per imperial gallon (0.72 kg/l), which is about the same heat per unit mass as the somewhat less dense diesel fuel. Number 2 fuel oil has a flash point of 52 °C. The flash point of a flammable liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can form an ignitable mixture with air. ...

Leaks from tanks and piping are an environmental concern. Various federal and state regulations are in place regarding the proper transportation, storage and burning of heating oil, which is classified as a hazardous material (HazMat) by federal regulators. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Heating oil may be blended with biofuel to create a product similar to biodiesel known as "bioheat". For articles on specific fuels used in vehicles, see Biogas, Bioethanol, Biobutanol and Biodiesel Biofuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass — recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. ... Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources (such as vegetable oils), which can be used in unmodified diesel-engined vehicles. ... Bioheat is a blend of biofuel and heating oil (or No. ...

Heating oil trade

Heating oil accounts for about 25% of the yield of a barrel of crude oil, the second largest "cut" after gasoline (petrol). The heating oil futures contract trades in units of 42,000 U.S. gallons (1,000 barrels) and (for the USA) is based on delivery in the New York harbor. Options on futures, calendar spread options contracts, crack spread options contracts, and average price options contracts give market participants even greater flexibility in managing price risk. The barrel is the name of several units of measurement. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Petroleum (from Greek petra – rock and elaion – oil or Latin oleum – oil ) or crude oil is a thick, dark brown or greenish liquid. ... Gasoline, also called petrol, is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting mostly of hydrocarbons and enhanced with benzene or iso-octane to increase octane ratings, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract, traded on a futures exchange, to buy or sell a certain underlying instrument at a certain date in the future, at a pre-set price. ... The gallon (abbreviation: gal) is an English unit of volume. ... NY redirects here. ... In finance, an option is a contract whereby one party (the holder or buyer) has the right but not the obligation to exercise a feature of the contract (the option) on or before a future date (the exercise date or expiry). ... An option contract is defined as a promise which meets the requirements for the formation of a contract and limits the promisors power to revoke an offer. ... A strategy used in the commodities markets, The spread created when purchasing oil futures and offsetting the position by selling gasoline and heating oil futures. ...

The heating oil futures contract is also used to hedge diesel fuel and jet fuel, both of which trade in the cash market at an often stable premium to NYMEX Division New York Harbor heating oil futures. In finance, a hedge is an investment that is taken out specifically to reduce or cancel out the risk in another investment. ... Jet fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in jet-engined aircraft. ... The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is the worlds largest physical commodity futures exchange located in New York City. ... New York Harbor, a geographic term, refers collectively to the rivers, bays, and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City. ...

See also

• Hazardous material
• Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)