Home heating oil

Linsomer

Apparently Brent crude has dropped back to early £2022 pre-invasion price yet an online quote from Boiler Juice shows it's gone back up again, around £470 for 500 litres.  Why?

Reed_Richards

There are a few oil-burning power stations.  As heating oil is now a relatively cheap fuel, even at £1 per litre, perhaps these are running at full capacity and their demand keeps prices higher?

Apodemus

Reed_Richards said:

There are a few oil-burning power stations.  As heating oil is now a relatively cheap fuel, even at £1 per litre, perhaps these are running at full capacity and their demand keeps prices higher?

Most of these are very small power stations in remote (often island) locations, where there is no alternative reliable source of back-up supply for renewables.  I'd be surprised if their total oil use was sufficient to affect the overall UK oil market.

MattMattMattUK

Linsomer said:

Apparently Brent crude has dropped back to early £2022 pre-invasion price yet an online quote from Boiler Juice shows it's gone back up again, around £470 for 500 litres.  Why?

Several reasons, firstly you do not burn Brent crude, you burn a product processed from crude and the costs of the individual products all play a price in the market to a lesser or greater extent. Secondly Brent crude is currently around $85 per barrel, in January 2022 it was around $80 and in January 2021 it was around $56. Thirdly those are dollar prices, Sterling has lost significant value in that time so those price differences are actually even greater. Finally the market is more complicated than just one price, processing, transportation and finance costs have all risen significantly over the last year, with the the shortage of drivers qualified to transport flammable fuels they might be paying 50% more for drivers, their diesel costs for the vehicles will be up significantly, if they operate using credit, which they likely do, the cost of that credit will have also increased, they may be paying 3-5 times what they previously did for rolling credit. The markets are not simple, energy prices will likely not fall back much this decade, we will be unlikely to see energy as cheap as the last ten years ever again.

Qyburn

From our local "Oil Club" this weekend ..

Brent Crude continues to edge up and stands at $84.50 a barrel this afternoon. However, once again there are product shortages in a number of areas with some suppliers advising they are not able to offer rates as they have no new stock until the end of next week or maybe the week after.

Last weekend ..

Brent Crude climbs to $83 a barrel, but in most areas Kerosene prices remain stable. However, there are shortages in a number of areas with some suppliers advising they are not able to offer rates as they have no new stock until 3rd of January.

17th December ..

Brent Crude remains below $80 a barrel, however suppliers are now very busy with many reporting they are fully booked into the New Year.