Best price for heating oil?

Gigervamp

donnalou, if you order a larger amount, it works out cheaper per litre. Also, some companies allow you to pay in installments by direct debit. We've used Total Butler and Watsonfuels who both do monthly payment plans.

donnalou

Thanks Gigervamp,

Watson and Total Butler have always been more expensive for me plus I don't like the idea of being tied to one company. I only ever order 500 litres because the prices seem to be up and down so much, Although I didn't expect the price to jump up £100 in 6 weeks!

home-heating-oil

Pricing will always vary from supplier to supplier on a daily basis and over 2-3 deliveries usually balances out. Larger co's are cheaper on a falling oil market price and more expensive on an increasing market. This is because they hold minimal supply and restock every 1-2 days from the refinery. I am not sure how BJ fix their price but I guess it would be the same at all of their 40 odd heating oil group companies.

There is now a bigger problem to deal with. The weather is killing the supply chain refineries not able to get stock out and when they do local depots cannot receive it, because of ice etc, and even if they can get a delivery the depot cannot get their trucks out to deliver... This is logistical nightmare being reflected in the price which is now ranging between 58-75ppl for 500ltrs. Also not helped by the price of Brent crude shooting up to $89 per barrel today.

The BBC are reporting a 23% increase of heating oil this year. They fail to say that the crude price has increased by 14% and I guess no one remembers how bad the weather was earlier this year which inflated the price when we faced almost the same problems now as we did then. If they had left the report to today the price increase would be closer 30%.

The main concern now is for anyone needing to order before Christmas may struggle to place an order let alone receive product! For this reason Top up customers will win as the supplier is contracted to maintain stock levels. Hence suppliers with minimal stock left will close their order books to service their contracts. So you probably do pay a little more but rather that than no heating for Christmas,

Gigervamp

donnalou wrote: »

Thanks Gigervamp,

Watson and Total Butler have always been more expensive for me plus I don't like the idea of being tied to one company. I only ever order 500 litres because the prices seem to be up and down so much, Although I didn't expect the price to jump up £100 in 6 weeks!

Surely it would be better to have one supplier, who may or may not be a bit more expensive when you order, that you can pay a monthly DD to and get the tank filled when you need it, rather than be without oil?

And having to order the minimum amount of oil on such a regular basis, you're going to pay more in the long run anyway.

home-heating-oil

Talking about supply issues.. I just noticed that Total Butler have added a "depot status" to their website heating oil enter your postcode and it will give you the status of your local depot.

twiglet98

kkgree1 wrote: »

Just thought I'd update as we should have had our first oil order today (weather permitting). Really pleased I checked this thread first as was going to go with "Go Locate"!

We ordered 750l from Total Butler and paid 42.38p per litre. All other companies I called were 47p-51p per litre.

We are on Cambs/Herts border.

I'm in the same area. Will try Total Butler tomorrow, I used to have an account with them, cancelled it a year or so ago, when almost out of oil but told there would be a three week wait for delivery, despite having over £500 credit balance on the account. Goff delivered in two days and I have used them ever since, though I haven't got a quote from them for this top-up. Boilerjuice say 57.43p/litre, I don't remember what I paid last time (and am too cold to rummage upstairs for the bill) but Goff reduced their price to match Boilerjuice's best.

I have an 1100 litre tank and three bars showing on the wireless monitor, not sure how much that translates to in litres! I'll try dipping the tank with my trusty garden cane, if the cap isn't frozen.

Tunstallstoven

Seems oil prices are going up a) because of the price of oil and b) because of the current cold spell, ice and snow.

I moved into a house with oil CH a few months ago and have never had oil before nor have I ever ordered it.

Seems there is no accounting for the price of oil. But once the snow has cleared is that side of the equation likely to bring the price of oil back down again quite quickly?

ossian

I'm in Angus and just phoned around my suppliers.

Boilerjuice... 61.26p/L

Brogan Fuels... >1000 order backlog. Minimum 2 week delay on delivery. Will not quote. If I order they will tell me spot price the day before delivery. Even though they store their oil in tanks and bought at the price (probably not even spot) when they stocked up.

Johston Oils (http://www.johnston-oils.co.uk/) have a similar backlog. However will quote. For 900L (as above) they quoted me 57.55p/L with a lead time of around 2 weeks.

I went for Johnston Oils.

Question does Boilerjuice just use the oil delivery companies that belong to their owners?

Pennylane

I've just phoned our regular supplier of heating oil and they want £606.97 for 900 litres (64.23p per litre) with delivery within 8 days.

The last lot we had was in April and the cost was £446.65.:(

I think that's shocking!

Pennylane

ossian wrote: »

I'm in Angus and just phoned around my suppliers.

Boilerjuice... 61.26p/L

Brogan Fuels... >1000 order backlog. Minimum 2 week delay on delivery. Will not quote. If I order they will tell me spot price the day before delivery. Even though they store their oil in tanks and bought at the price (probably not even spot) when they stocked up.

Johston Oils (http://www.johnston-oils.co.uk/) have a similar backlog. However will quote. For 900L (as above) they quoted me 57.55p/L with a lead time of around 2 weeks.

I went for Johnston Oils.
Question does Boilerjuice just use the oil delivery companies that belong to their owners?

Thanks for that. I'm off to check those out. I'm also wondering where the oil would be delivered from.