The winter heating oil season, which often competes with diesel for available crude, is nearing. But this year, worrisome factors – led by a lack of supply due to refinery repairs, hurricanes and new environmental rules – are combining to crunch diesel prices to new highs.

A report by the Oct. 27 edition of The Wall Street Journal says refinery overhauls in the United States and Europe are “slowing production, limiting supplies and raising the likelihood of steep price increases in the United States.”

Refiners usually schedule routine downtime in the fall to reconfigure their plants to increase production of a slate of refined production. But this year, refiners are upgrading their plants to meet new federal environmental rules that require them to reduce the amount of sulfur in fuel.

In addition, refiners have already cut back after hurricanes disrupted oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving them short on the crude.

In the United States, affected areas will be Northeast, where two-thirds of the nation's homes that use heating oil are located, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration says.

EIA adds that heating-oil costs will rise by as much as 28 percent this year in the Northeast, costing a homeowner $1,223 this winter. A severe winter could push prices up an additional 15.4 percent, and cause heating bills to rise to $1,412, the EIA says.