BELFAST, Maine — Mainers should be able to stretch their dollars this year with the winter heating season just weeks away and fuel prices much lower than a year ago.

From firewood to pellets to propane to heating oil, prices are down and supply is up as people learned their lesson from last year’s panic buying and apparently are taking a more conservative approach this year. The worldwide economic slump also has resulted in less demand for oil and other fuels, causing prices to drop ac-cordingly, industry observers say.

“It certainly is a lot better this year,” John Kerry, director of the Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security, said Friday. “We’re in a much better position this winter and we want it to stay that way. Right now petroleum supplies are excellent, supplies of natural gas are at a seven-year high in the region, and propane and biofuels are also very good.”

Kerry said fuel prices moderated across the board this year and are at a point where people are able to make wise choices for their energy needs this winter. He stressed that people should take a “cautious” approach and set aside additional money if possible just in case a “geopolitical event or a speculative event” causes a disrup-tion of supply or a sharp increase in prices.

Kerry added that additional money is available for those who cannot afford to heat their homes this winter through the state’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, and Keep Maine Warm programs. More money for weatherization also will be available this year. Keep Maine Warm provides assistance for those who are not eligible for LIHEAP or who run out of fuel after receiving their LIHEAP allotment.

“Prices for all fuels have moderated and are much lower than they were last year at this time,” Kerry said.

Along with lower prices is less demand. Belfast firewood dealer Brad Bowen has been in the business for 30 years and never experienced anything like last year. This year has been just the opposite, he said. Bowen said he had a backlog of 540 cords of wood on order last fall, but this year he has 30 cords of dry wood left.

“It’s completely night and day from last year,” Bowen said Friday. “Everybody went into a panic last year and this year is the opposite. Things have been very slow.”

Bowen said he moved more than 1,000 cords of firewood last year and figures to sell about 600 this year. He said his sales were off because more people moved into the business this year in an attempt to take advantage of last year’s high prices. Bowen is selling dry wood for $225 a cord and green wood for $200.

“My goal is to sell out by the Union Fair [held three weeks ago], and I’ve still got 30 cords left,” Bowen said. “People can’t believe my pile is almost gone but it’s a lot less than last year. People who usually ordered six cords were ordering nine last year. That just isn’t happening. Everybody overbought last year, and this year it’s dead. Last year you couldn’t hide. It’s gone from the busiest to the slowest in one year.”

Recent newspaper ads for a cord of cut, split and delivered green wood have listed prices as low as $160 in the Bangor area.

Bowen speculated that last year’s boom in pellet stoves affected the demand side. He said many people who heated solely with oil last year added a pellet stove to supplement their heating system and cut costs. He said stove and pellet dealers told him their supplies were strong this year.

Jamie Py, president of the Maine Oil Dealers Association, said supplies were high throughout the world and that prices in Maine were nearly one-half those of last summer. Py said the retail price for a gallon of heating oil is about $2.25 today, compared to $4 last summer.

Py said gasoline, diesel and propane are all part of the refinery process and that their prices increase or decrease with the price of a barrel of crude oil. He said it’s hard to predict commodity prices because they fluctuate with speculation. Py urged people to winterize their homes and consider supplemental sources of heat if they want to reduce energy costs.

“The price of all energy will move together at some point. When oil is up and natural gas is cheaper, people will go cheaper and the price of oil will go down. The Btu will follow the Btu, as they say,” Py said Friday. “In Maine the supply is fine and dealers are in good shape. Everybody needs to weatherize if they can and make sure their equipment is running efficiently because we all could do well to save some money.”

On Tuesday, the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security listed the statewide average for a gallon of No. 2 heating oil as $2.37, down 3 cents from the week before. The highest price average was in the northern part of the state at $2.67 a gallon, and the lowest was in the southwest part of the state at $2.15.

The statewide average for a gallon of kerosene was $2.78.

More information on fuel costs is available from the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security at http://maine.gov/oeis/index.html.