Lynn Ascrizzi of Freedom was just being cautious.
She called her heating oil dealer on Monday to get her home’s half-full tank topped off during a cold snap because she “didn’t want to get stuck” on empty.
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But M.A. Haskell Fuel Co. in South China told her she’d have to wait a week.
“I’m surprised that it would take so long,” Ascrizzi said.
Reports of delays have been isolated across Maine, despite a month of heavy snow and unusually cold weather. While Maine’s energy delivery system is “performing well,” there have been some delays in eastern Maine because of a tight kerosene market, according to a top state energy official.
In Portland, high temperatures exceeded the freezing mark on only two of the first 18 days of February and snowfall totals are well above the average for an entire season. More than 40 inches of snow has fallen in much of Maine, particularly coastal areas, since a large storm near the end of January.
Bill Peebles, Haskell’s general manager, said his company is about a week behind on deliveries because of supply problems, among them a recent lack of kerosene available from its supplier, New Brunswick-based Irving Oil, one of the region’s largest distributors of heating fuels.
Irving spokeswoman Samantha Robinson said in a statement that “as a result of extreme weather conditions over recent weeks, some sites may have experienced delivery delays due to unsafe travel conditions” and that the company is working to serve customers “without interruption.”
“I’m not sure where the bottleneck lies, but the issue for us is not being able to get it locally as fast as we should,” Peebles said.
Patrick Woodcock, director of Gov. Paul LePage’s energy office, said there’s no widespread problem with energy delivery. He said eastern Maine has experienced some interruptions with kerosene, but oil remains well-supplied across Maine.
“The delivery system of energy products has been performing well,” he said. “There have been some limited instances of interruptions, but we monitor this very closely, and these are very localized events, and hopefully some improvements in weather will provide some relief.”
Some dealers report no problems. Marc Lacasse, general manager of Augusta Fuel Co., said his firm is in “pretty good shape” on deliveries. Mike Levenseller, the central Maine area manager for Dead River Co., said drivers in his area are current for all customers signed up for automatic delivery. People who call for deliveries might wait a week, but that’s typical for many customers in rural areas, he said.
At Chapman Oil in Gardiner, secretary Angela Anderson said drivers are busy, but running only slightly behind because of high demand.
“Two-day runs turn into four days to get them done because of all the call-ins,” Anderson said.
One company in perhaps Maine’s hardest-hit Down East area has “made the best of a bad situation,” said Mike Tammaro, general manager of V.L. Tammaro Oil Co. in Baileyville. A storm that hit that area and parts of York County on Sunday dropped more than 2 feet of snow in eastern Washington County, which is Tammaro’s service area.
Tammaro said there have been problems with Irving’s kerosene supply, but they have been solved and his workers aren’t behind. He said he has hired young relatives of his regular employees to accompany drivers shovel out snow-covered tanks, a move he said has “worked out great for morale.”
“Everybody’s having a good rapport, and it’s keeping everybody in good spirits,” he said.
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