BELFAST – If you think the price of firewood is high today, just wait until next year.

That was the prediction of three area firewood dealers who see no end in sight for higher prices if the cost of oil continues to rise.

The rapid increase in the cost of fuel has added to the production costs of cutting, splitting and delivering firewood, resulting in high prices, shrinking profits and worried customers, they said.

With seasoned firewood selling for $200 a cord, Belfast wood dealers John Ellis and Brad Bowen and Bangor dealer Sky Burrill said it’s only a matter of time before they are forced to adjust their prices to cover increasing expenses.

“People right now are just trying to survive,” Ellis said Tuesday. “They can’t afford to buy green wood now for next year because they are fighting to get through this winter. They can’t even think about next year.”

Ellis said the wood business runs on gasoline and diesel, and with prices on the rise, profits are shrinking. He said that while he sold hundreds of cords this year, he considered the market to be a bit soft because of higher prices.

“There’s no real problem in getting people to buy it, but the high cost of fuel is sort of cutting my profit,” Ellis said. “You can save money by burning wood, but as the price of fuel goes up, the price of wood will have to go up too. It’s costing a fortune to fill the truck and chain saws. You fill up two cans with gas and you’re talking almost 50 bucks.”

Burrill’s company has a $60,000 diesel-powered wood splitter that can split two cords of wood an hour. Whenever the price of fuel increases, the cost of splitting wood goes up accordingly. Burrill said that while he would like to raise prices this year, he hopes to hold off as long as he can.

“I think you’re going to see the price go up if the price of oil goes up,” Burrill said Tuesday. “We’re using diesel for the trucks, then there’s the tires, anything that has to do with petroleum products. I’d like to hold it at $200 a cord because people are hurting in so many ways. Their car, food, everything seems to be going up. People just can’t function with the cost of living. The whole thing has gone to pot.”

The Web site maineoil.com listed midcoast fuel oil prices Tuesday from about $2.95 a gallon to as high as $3.20.

According to mainegasprices.com, gasoline prices in the Belfast area ranged from $3.17 to $3.24 a gallon for regular, and diesel in the Belfast area ranged from $3.53 to $3.74 a gallon.

Even with high prices for seasoned firewood, Burrill said, wood is still a better deal than oil. He said it takes about 150 gallons of oil to equal a cord of wood. That works out to $450 worth of oil compared to $200 for wood with a comparable Btu value.

“If anybody needs firewood, they really want to go after it now. If anybody wants to save some money on oil, they better get going because pretty soon the only wood out there will be green wood,” he said.

Bowen agreed that the cost of oil was driving the price of wood. Bowen said he sold 260 cords of seasoned wood this year compared to 385 two years ago. He said he sold his last load on Nov. 3, whereas in previous years people would have bought their wood by early September. He said people put off buying wood this year because they had to raise the money to pay for it.

“For myself, I think it was a slow year,” Bowen said. “My truck holds three cords, and at $200 a cord that’s $600. I don’t think a lot of people can afford that. This year, people just did not have the money. There has not been a shortage of wood, but you can’t drop your prices because you won’t stay in business if you do. This fuel is completely shutting the economy down.”

Bowen noted that the price per cord had increased from $220 to $275 a cord in southern Maine in the past few weeks and that he would not be surprised if prices in the midcoast reached similar levels by next year. Green wood, which is not ideal for burning because it is still wet with resins, is selling for about $175 a cord in central Maine.

The price of oil will be the determining factor in whether the cost of wood rises or falls, Bowen said.

“If fuel drops back down to $2 a gallon, you’re not going to be seeing $200-a-cord firewood,” he said. “But I don’t see that happening. The whole economy is dead. Not just in the woods – look at the fishermen, they’re hurting too. I don’t know how people will make a living if it stays like this.”

All three dealers buy logs in tree-length size and process them into firewood. Chain saws, wood splitters and delivery trucks all run on gasoline or diesel. As prices increase, the cost of doing business becomes more expensive.

“I sell at the same price no matter where I go, whether it’s in Belfast or down to Camden,” Bowen said. “The further I have to drive, the more it cuts into my profit.”

Burrill said he turned down a woman who called from Cherryfield the other day because he knew she could not afford what it would cost to haul wood down from Bangor.

Ellis said one thing that was working in wood dealers’ favor this year was the soft market for pulp. He said that in years past dealers were competing with paper mills for product. With the high price of fuel, loggers have been looking closer to home to sell their product instead of driving across the state to sell hardwood to mills in Jay or Skowhegan.

“It’s cheaper for them to haul to me,” Ellis said. “They’ll save on fuel.”

Walter Griffin may be reached at wgriffin@bangordailynews.net or 338-9546.