Home Heating Oil: Find the Cheapest Heating Oil for 2024

The current cheapest oil price per 1000 litres as of 2023 is €1,040. As a fossil fuel, oil for home heating can only become scarcer and more expensive in the future so it’s also worth considering switching to another fuel source for heating, such as renewable energy, or even LPG. Check out our Home Heating Oil Guide for more!

Who Has the Cheapest Oil Prices in Ireland?

Although the majority of the population of Ireland is concentrated in urban locations, there is still a sizable portion of the population who live in rural areas and need access to information on the cheapest oil prices. While beautiful and scenic, these rural areas may not be connected to Ireland's gas network, and as such customers living there can find themselves relying on oil, LPG, or wood-fired home heating systems. It is, therefore, crucial to know what the best offers near you are for these products.

How Much Is Home Heating Oil Today In Ireland?

The current cheapest oil price per 1000 litres as of 2023 is €1,040. To put this amount in perspective, the average price per 1000 litres of oil in April of 2020 was €350, close to three times less!

Nobody could have predicted the 2020 lockdown and the ongoing effect it has had on the oil industry. With a large percentage of the global population in lockdown and many commercial activities suspended, oil demand dropped precipitously and in some cases was in negative value. All this has meant a huge drop in oil prices in Ireland. At the same time, the demand for home heating oil increased due to so many people being at home. The ensuing war in Ukraine has only fuelled the global energy problem even more.

Prices for home heating oil tend to be cheapest in Dublin and the surrounding area (Kildare, Meath), and increase the further you go from Dublin (e.g. Galway, Cork, Wexford). Also clear is that prices can differ significantly depending on the supplier, so we would recommend shopping around. In particular, the website Cheapest Oil offers a free unbiased oil provider price comparison service, while others charge a commission.

What Are the Current Home Heating Oil Prices?

Historically, global oil prices have been extremely volatile, and this has, of course, heavily affected the price of home heating oil in Ireland. Also to be taken into account is that global oil prices are normally priced in dollars. Consequently, the exchange rate for the dollar and the euro has a knock-on effect on prices.

Since the year 2000, the cheapest oil price in Ireland was €437.70 per thousand litres, and the highest was an eye-watering €1,040 per thousand litres in 2023.

As you can see from the chart below, oil prices have been steadily trending upwards over the last few years and by the 2021 year-end, a thousand litres was priced at €645.30. Between 2000-2018, prices were clocking in at €778 on average, so €645.30 was still quite reasonable. Although the price has dropped considerably from 2022, the price in 2023 is still expensive a looks to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Source: CheapestOil.ie
Last Updated: 15/11/2023

Keep in mind that the prices shown above for oil tend to be averaged out across Ireland, as in fact, pricing differs slightly from county to county. Why do prices change in different counties? Simply put, because of the distance needed to transport oil from its import point or storage depot.

What Is The Average Heating Oil Usage For A Home?

Statistics analysed by Cheapest Oil Northern Ireland, indicate that on average, a 3 bedroom terraced house will use up around 1,300 litres of oil a year with their oil boiler, while a 5 bedroom detached house can use up to 2,650 litres a year.

So how does heating your home with oil measure up to other heating sources? We have a closer look at the answer in the sections below, feel free to browse through our energy guides as well to further examine your options.

What Is Home Heating Oil? There are two types of home heating oil, kerosene and gas oil. For residential use, the usual home heating oil used is kerosene. Gas oil is commonly used for commercial or farm properties.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Home Heating Oil

To examine how home heating oil compares to other home heating sources, we start by looking at its pros and cons below.

Pros of Using Oil

• Better Efficiency
  Analysed on its efficiency alone, oil does give a great return on every unit of energy. Oil burns at about 400 degrees hotter than both electricity and natural gas and can warm up your home much faster.
• Often Cheaper
  Provided oil prices are low, oil can be an acceptably priced alternative for your home heating, and is cheaper than heating through electricity-based systems like storage heaters.
• Better in Bulk
  The economy of scale also means that your oil will be cheaper if you buy it in bulk.

Cons of Using Oil

• Possibility of Running Out
  If you haven’t switched to automatic deliveries, as oil is transported by road there is always the possibility of running out while waiting for your next delivery. Inclement weather such as storms or snow can also affect the routes for supplying oil.
• Storage
  If your house depends on oil for home heating, then you’ll need a place to safely store it, i.e. a tank. You may be able to rent your tank from your supplier, or you might need to buy it outright, adding to the already hefty cost of home heating through oil.
• Yearly Service
  Whichever tank you choose, above ground or underground, it will have to be serviced yearly to ensure there are no issues such as leaks, sludge, or tampering.
• Leakages Cause Damage
  If your oil tank does leak, it can have a detrimental effect on the surrounding environment that can take weeks, and sometimes even months to clean up, depending on the amount spilt.
• Reduce House Value
  An oil tank can sometimes decrease the interest from potential home buyers if you are trying to sell your house, as most are looking for more modern and less expensive heating technologies.
• Minimum Purchases
  Many oil companies have a minimum amount of oil that needs to be purchased to make a delivery, many at least 500 litres. This means you can’t simply top your tank up if you’re short on cash and may have to shell out quite a bit.
• Carbon Emissions
  Last but not least, as a fossil fuel, oil does produce carbon when it’s burned for residential use. With Ireland’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions by increasing the use of renewable energy sources, this is an important negative point.

Heating Oil TamperingHeating oil theft is an issue in Ireland and reports of it have increased over the previous winters. Thieves come at night and drain all the oil from a tank. This can be disastrous for some families financially, given that normally, only expensive bulk orders of oil are delivered. To avoid the possibility of tampering, it is advisable to either have an underground tank or lock up your tank in a shed.

Where Does Ireland Get Its Home Heating Oil From?

Ireland’s oil, unfortunately, is 100% imported. As so many households are dependent on oil in Ireland, the government maintains roughly 90 days' worth of petroleum stocks for controlled distribution in the event of a shortage.

Oil imports to Ireland consist of petrol, diesel, and crude oil which are then processed at a refinery in Cork. Oil has been discovered off the coast of Cork but has yet to be processed, and with the drive towards renewable energy, it may never be.

Oil imports in Ireland are first received by ship, and then distributed either directly by tanker, or stored in depots. Countries which supply Ireland with oil include:

Source: SEAI - Statistical Overview Report
Last Updated: 15/11/2023

Shockingly, Ireland has the fourth highest oil dependency in the EU, with nearly 37% of the 1.7 million households in the Republic dependent on oil for heating and hot water. On a more positive note, the latest CRU report shows that oil has been nearly eliminated from electricity production at only 1.2% of the all-island fuel mix.

Are There Alternatives to Heating Your Home With Oil?

Yes! There are more and more new technologies coming out to replace the dependancy on oil for home heating. If you’re building a home off the gas grid or already have a home that uses oil, some home heating alternatives you could look into are:

• Connection to the gas network
• Solar panels
• Heat pumps
• Underfloor heating
• Switching to LPG

In particular, installing solar panels or a heat pump might not be as expensive as you think as they both benefit from substantial grants from the SEAI.

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Oil is currently a necessity for many Irish citizens, but the writing is definitely on the wall for this “dirty” fossil fuel. As such, customers can continue to suffer volatile prices, fuel poverty, uncertainty, and attempt to mitigate costs in the short term by making sure they are getting the best deal in their area.

However, in the mid-to-long-term, a shift towards different fuels will become a necessity as oil stocks decline and carbon emissions are cracked down on. The world’s oil reserves are predicted to run out in 2052 so while this may not be an immediate problem, as stocks decline and prices become prohibitively expensive, making a switch of home heating sources a very real issue.

With the government focusing on renewable energy and carbon emissions, the future for Ireland may be rosy, but it’s definitely no oil painting.