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Weather Aids Drain

"However," he continued,
"there are more immediate
reasons for the problems." A
wet autumn and an early, icy
winter "created an early drain
on supplies of heating oil and
natural gas."

"The fuel situation
developed into the classic
'domino' situation – hit one
and the others fall down," Mr.
Ikard said. "In the case of fuel,
the first to be 'hit' was natural
gas."

Mr. Ikard said another
reason for the short supply of
heating oils is that the demand
for gasoline exceeded
expectations last summer. In
order to keep up with demand,
refineries boosted production
and this delayed a buildup of
heating oil inventories.

The current problems are
minor compared with what
could happen unless the
government formulates
comprehensive and coherent
energy policies, Mr. Ikard
added.