Home Heating Oil: Find the cheapest prices of 2023

With the continuous fluctuation of oil prices, it’s important to have a good overview of the costs associated with home heating oil and where and how to find the cheapest oil. 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. We look at all of these items and more regarding home heating oil in Ireland below.

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 sizeable 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 August 2022 is €1,200. To put this amount in perspective, the average price per 1000 litres of oil in April of 2020 was €350, close to four 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 fueled the global energy problem even more.

According to the price monitoring website, Global Petrol Prices, the price per litre of oil in Ireland has risen to €1.939 per litre in August 2022, compared to €0.61 in April 2020. But are all home heating oil suppliers reflecting the increase in their prices? Let's find out in the table below which lists the cheapest oil prices in Ireland per county.

Who Has The Cheapest Home Heating Oil Prices Near Me?

County	Cheapest Price (per 500 litres)	Supplier
Carlow	€625	Mr Oil
Cavan	€620	Curran Oil
Clare	€640	Corrib Oil
Cork	€640	O'Keeffe's Ltd
Donegal	€619	Springtown Fuels and Swilly Fuels
Dublin	€619	Capital Oil and Curaan Oil
Galway	€630	RightPriceOil
Kerry	€640	O'Keeffe's Ltd
Kildare	€620	Curran Oil
Kilkenny	€625	Mr Oil
Laois	€617	Capital Oil
Leitrim	€640	Mr OilMan
Limerick	€640	O'Keeffe's Ltd
Longford	€620	Curran Oil
Louth	€620	EK Fuels
Mayo	€640	Sweeney Oil
Meath	€615	Bective Oil
Monaghan	€615	More Oils
Offaly	€625	Lambes Oil & RightPriceOil
Roscommon	€625	RightPriceOil & Local Fuels
Sligo	€640	Mr. Oil Man
Tipperary	€640	Corrib Oil
Waterford	€625	McCarthys Homevalue
Westmeath	€620	Curran Oil
Wexford	€615	Newline Oil
Wicklow	€625	Kenny Fuels

Source: OilPrices.ie - Prices current as of August 2022

As we can see from the examples in the chart above, 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.

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 €1,655 per thousand litres in July of this year.

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. However, the steady increase in prices this year hints at more worry to come for those who depend on oil for their home heating.

Source: CheapestOil.ie - Prices current as of August 2022

Statistics analysed by 'Cheapest Oil' show that oil prices are volatile enough that sizeable shifts in pricing can even occur from one day to the next. For example, between the 30th of May and the 1st of June 2022, prices shot up an additional €60. Since its €1,500 peak in July 2022, continuing price decreases have pushed the 1000 litres price down slightly, reaching €1,260 by August 22nd.

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.

Great care needs to be taken when transporting large quantities of oil, and even with huge tankers, only a certain amount can be transported per route at a time. These restrictions and added safety precautions mean more staff are needed, more trips to fill tanks and tankers, and more fuel used up transporting the oil.

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 1300 litres of oil a year, while a 5 bedroom detached house can use up to 2650 litres a year.

At current prices, that’s from €1,612 to an astronomical €3,286 if you shop around and get the cheapest oil price for your area. So how does heating your home with oil measure up to other heating sources? We have a closer 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.

Pros & 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

• 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 & gas and can warm up your home much faster.
• 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.
• The economy of scale also means that your oil will be cheaper if you buy it in bulk.

Cons of Using Oil

• 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.
• Some suppliers offer a service where they calculate your usage to predict when you may be running low and refill your tank, removing the hassle of needing to call and order for delivery.
• 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.
• Oil tanks can be quite unsightly, although if you’re willing to pay more money, the possibility does exist of having an underground tank.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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

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 dependance 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.

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.