By Tom Doggett

The U.S. average retail price for home heating oil soared 5.4 cents over the past week to a record $3.40 a gallon, the government said on Wednesday.

The national heating oil price was up 98 cents from a year ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of heating fuel costs around the country. It was the fourth week in a row that heating oil hit a record.

Heating oil prices are rising because of higher crude oil costs, which topped at a record above $100 a barrel last week, and tight supplies.

While distillate fuel inventories, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, increased by 1.5 million barrels last week, stocks are still down almost 15 million barrels from a year ago and are in the lower half of the average range for inventories at this time of year, according to the EIA.

Washington D.C. again had the highest heating oil price at $3.77 a gallon, up 8.7 cents from the previous week. The next-highest prices were in New Jersey at $3.55, New York at $3.52 and Connecticut at $3.50.

The lowest price for heating oil was in Nebraska at $3.01 a gallon, up 2.3 cents, followed by Iowa at $3.04, Kentucky at $3.08 and Ohio at $3.09.

Northeast households that rely the most on heating oil are expected to pay a record average $3.34 a gallon for the fuel this winter, up 84 cents from last winter, according to the EIA.

Heating oil costs in the region, where one out of three households use the fuel, are forecast to average $2,078 for the winter, up 38 percent from last year.

The National Fuel Funds Network, which represents more than 300 charity-funded energy assistance programs, this week called for the Bush administration to release government funds provided by Congress to help poor families pay their winter heating bills.

In a letter to President George W. Bush, the group asked for the release of $590 million from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP.

"Mr. President, we are barely half way through this heating season. Oil reached over $100 per barrel last week. There is more cold weather to come," the group wrote.

"Americans need to be able to be comfortable in their homes. They should not have to make hard decisions between providing food for their families or heat for their homes," the group said.