Martin Lewis: Heating oil & LPG price hikes – are firms playing fair? We need your feedback…

MSE_Clare

Read the full news story:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2026/03/heating-oil-feedback-request/

To share you recent experiences with heating oil prices and deliveries, please email us at 
heatingoil@moneysavingexpert.com

Zedzhaze

We rely on oil for heating and hot water. We bought oil for 63.5 per litre last week and now our oil club is quoting £1.22 per litre with a reduced number of suppliers offering deliveries. We are both pensioners and my husband is registered disabled and suffers badly from the cold. At these prices, we have to switch the heating off from prolonged periods and obviously off completely overnight. Lack of industry regulation coupled with 5% VAT is crippling us!

fatbelly

Quoted 134p per litre today

Ordered it at that price for delivery in 7 days. Will report back what happens

Edit: Delivered and billed at that price on Friday 13th (!). Didn't have a lot of choice as I usually run out and reorder at this time of year, not likely to get any help from the government and feel happier getting some oil in the tank, given that our leaders seem to want to start WW3

mark_cycling00

The UK refines 30% less heating oil than in 2010. We now import about 50% from the middle East. Our remaining refineries are expected to close in the next decade due to increasing costs and regulation.

Who do you think is making profit and being unfair?

Certas/dcc (biggest UK+ire heating oil supplier) share price is down 10% since the conflict started. That doesn't sound like a company who has just added 50% profit to their product.

Heating oil isn't like electricity where EDF might generate it and also sell it to you.

It's a few dozen small companies buying whatever is or isn't arriving at a few oil depots around the UK.

The blame lies with successive government policy to run down our oil supply chain and make us dangerously dependent on imports

mnbvcxz

Brent crude has been 80-90 dollars a barrel for the last week. That implies heating oil at 70-80p a litre. High but not historically ruinous.

So I think the actual problem is panic buying swamping the suppliers. Most people around just say no delivery slots available...

So while £1.20 a litre is outrageous I have sympathy when they are still swamped with demand.

What's the answer? Only let people order when their tanks are nearly empty? I don't know. Wait for things to calm down and the panic buyers to have filled all their oil tanks to the brim.

And try not to be like me resorting to running the boiler on hot water only to make the last of my oil last... I'm running out of firewood too. But it's nearly spring and today was sunny and mild. Fingers crossed.

Gaberdeen

We were fortunate enough to have our tank filled at the end of January so we have a little bit of time with regards to the price stabilising a bit.

Couldn't agree more with mark_cycling00's point about the supply chain - I'd go further and proffer that running down the industrial capacity / Oil & Gas industry of the UK is easily one of the worst things that any modern UK government has ever done - I know this might stray into being "political" but it's too important a point to avoid talking about.

Everything from distillates (petrol, diesel, kerosene, aviation fuel), lubricants, waxes, bitumen & feedstocks, naptha (ethylenes, propylenes) are now being supplied from abroad, meaning anything (everything!) containing these fractions is going to increase in value as the competition / demand for it surges.

There was a warning shot of sorts when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the price of TTF & NBP surged dramatically - and in that moment, the UK & EU looked to the USA and Qatar's LPG exports to replace Russian supply - the obvious elephant in the room of Trump/Iran was ignored.

If anything of genuine value comes out of this price shock - I hope it's that all politicians wake up to the reality of the situation and start focusing on outcomes over optics. Oil & Gas is not a curse - it's a strategic resource - one that underpins any nations energy independence and moreover directly impacts the ability to weather global crisis's.

MattMattMattUK

If we wanted a strategic energy resource and energy security we would be building nuclear at significant scale and switching over oil boilers to heat pumps.

shadow81

The email link is not working.

I am in a position where I have suddenly run out. No heating or hot water. I was eking it out to see if prices came down. I placed an order last Thursday 05th March at £1.18 a litre. I only ordered the minimum amount of 500 litres so Im hoping things will calm down and I can fill the tank again before October. I've been given a 2WEEK delivery window with nothing until 20th March at the latest. I've emailed the company to let them know Ive run out and to ask if they could fit me in this week. But I've heard nothing back. Deliveries usually arrive in 2-3 days, or even next day so this shows how swamped they are. Im absolutely freezing in a 150 year old rented cottage. Using a fan heater to heat one room where I'm working or sleeping. Boiling the kettle for hot water. The electricity bill is also going to take a hit!

Daveeeb

Just received notice that our order made on 1st March and paid for immediately for delivery on or before 13th March has been cancelled

Given 3 options - contact them to confirm "new" price for delivery, cancel order for refund or hold order until price is back to Feb rates

Seems companies T&Cs give no option for any recourse

😡

Hammy88

I placed an order on 27th February for 800ltrs at £564 (70ppl), was going to be delivered this week, I got told yesterday it was cancelled, as they could not fulfill the order, but i can place another order (straight away) costing £1409!! (176ppl) this is an increase of 149% this is just pure greed!

RuralKentGirl

We placed an order via our Oil Club on the 1st March for 500 litres at a cost of £316. Order was confirmed and the payment was taken by the fuel company in question. I rang them today to check on delivery status to be told that they are unable to honour the order at the original price and that if I want to continue with the order, we will need to pay nearer £650. They can also refund the money, or hold on to it until the market stabilises. We've made the decision to not cancel the order but to sit tight, turn the heating off and wait for things to (hopefully) calm down. Their T&Cs suggest they are totally in their right to do this. So whilst not illegal, it does feel completely unethical.