Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

LittleVermin

If anyone has a friend who has a forecourt they might like to take out a free trial to get Platts. Or someone in Agriculture, Industry, etc... https://www.fuelpricesonline.com/public/freetrial.aspx

thozza

The CME site does have some data on ANSI LPG historic trends as well as the futures prices (it's on the NYMEX exchange), if you click on the little graph symbol next to the current month it gives previous prices and shows that LPG has increased rapidly in recent weeks, if you go back it would appear that wholesale prices are approximately double what they were in April 2020, of course the wholesale price does not necessarily reflect the resale price but does give an indication of the direction of travel for underlying prices.
https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/petrochemicals/european-propane-cif-ara-argus-swap.html

JerryW

That is an interesting chart, thozza .. not sure I completely understand it, and it appears to be listing futures prices rather than actual ones.. here is another chart that lists current Brent Crude oil prices. LPG is made from crude and the wholesale prices tracke each other very closely so it will illustrate trends quite well:

https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/commodities/bz:nmx?timeframe=18m

thozza

The site does track futures, but looking at the graph historically, these reflect actual prices:-

JerryW

Historical futures prices, I think? Still I'm sure it is a good record of trends - the graph is very similar to the Brent Crude graph.

J_B

mcmullank said:

J_B said:

Colleague has just moved to an LPG house. No internet yet so has asked me to enquire for her.

I've filled in LPG Save and LPG Compare sites and pressed 'enquire'

Any others, or will that do?

You first port of call is to look at the https://www.liquidgasuk.org/domestic/supplier-search which will provide details of who can supply.  Then best to phone up and haggle with the suppliers from there, use this thread as a guide in terms of pricing and getting fixed pricing.

LPG Compare have offered 35.9 with Avanti and 34p with Extragas, but both only a 12 month fix

LPG Save offer 34ppl with Flogas - 2 year fix

Still waiting to hear back from Woldlink

LittleVermin

thozza said:

..... ANSI LPG historic trends .......................... LPG has increased rapidly in recent weeks, if you go back it would appear that wholesale prices are approximately double what they were in April 2020, of course the wholesale price does not necessarily reflect the resale price .........................

HateLPG for many years posted Platts/ANSI wholesale prices converted into pence per litre plotted against prices posted transparently on suppliers' websites. So we had some idea of the relationship between wholesale price and what the better independents were charging. For example: 1. ANSI 35, Cardiff, Lister, Extragas, LPG Wales Direct 49-54. 2. ANSI 16, indies 34-40. 3. ANSI 10, indies 29-39. Not exactly a simple correlation! Remember that when wholesale prices are unstable indies have problems. Remember too that the majors buy forward ...and Calor, for example, has a massive storage facility in underground chalk caverns, so short term speculation should be less of a concern to them (though still a "reason" to justify a price hike!). Here's HateLPG's 2yr price chart from 6 years ago (........ hmm, how much progress have we made in getting this so-called 'market' regulated ..or even transparent? Zero.) http://www.lpguser.co.uk/utils/lpg_price_info.php?m=201512&v=2&w=1500  

LittleVermin

LittleVermin said:

................... Here's HateLPG's 2yr price chart from 6 years ago ........................ http://www.lpguser.co.uk/utils/lpg_price_info.php?m=201512&v=2&w=1500  

Hmmm. can't even count using my fingers! Apologies - should be "5 years ago".

Juleszoemay

J_B said:

mcmullank said:

J_B said:

Colleague has just moved to an LPG house. No internet yet so has asked me to enquire for her.

I've filled in LPG Save and LPG Compare sites and pressed 'enquire'

Any others, or will that do?

You first port of call is to look at the https://www.liquidgasuk.org/domestic/supplier-search which will provide details of who can supply.  Then best to phone up and haggle with the suppliers from there, use this thread as a guide in terms of pricing and getting fixed pricing.

LPG Compare have offered 35.9 with Avanti and 34p with Extragas, but both only a 12 month fix

LPG Save offer 34ppl with Flogas - 2 year fix

Still waiting to hear back from Woldlink

I used LPG Save too and they got us 36ppl with Flogas (who we are already with at 61ppl!) When I called Flogas direct, they only offered to reduce to 49.5ppl. It makes no sense to me! 36ppl for 1 year with a maximum 3.5ppl increase in Year 2. No brainer, shame we had just been filled up!!

JerryW

Juleszoemay said:

I used LPG Save too and they got us 36ppl with Flogas (who we are already with at 61ppl!) When I called Flogas direct, they only offered to reduce to 49.5ppl. It makes no sense to me! 36ppl for 1 year with a maximum 3.5ppl increase in Year 2. No brainer, shame we had just been filled up!!

Basically all the majors try to charge as high a price as they can get away with. Simple as that, really.

Please be certain the 3.5ppl increase in year 2 really is a maximum. See various earlier posts about how that can be got round if you do not have a 2 year fix.