How much does heating oil cost right now?

90.01p a litre on the UK reading, published 27 August 2026 and checked 23 September 2026. In the United States the last residential print was $5.54 a gallon for the week ending 30 March 2026. Both figures carry their lag on the page.

What does a 1,000 litre order of heating oil cost?

GBP 900.10 at 90.01p a litre, VAT at 5% already included in that rate. A 500 litre order at the same headline rate is GBP 450.05, though small orders usually carry a higher pence per litre than the published typical price.

What does it cost to fill a 275 gallon tank?

$1,522.13 for a nominal 275 gallons at $5.54. In practice a tanker fills to about 95% of nominal, so an empty 275 gallon tank takes roughly 261 gallons, which is $1,446.02.

Is heating oil the same as kerosene?

In Britain, yes. Domestic heating oil is 28 second kerosene, also called standard grade burning oil. In America, heating oil is No. 2 distillate, a heavier fuel closer to road diesel. The two markets are not buying the same product.

Is heating oil the same as diesel?

No. US No. 2 heating oil is chemically close to road diesel but is untaxed for road use and is often dyed. UK kerosene is a lighter fuel than diesel. Putting the wrong grade in a domestic boiler is a service call, not a saving.

Is heating oil cheaper in summer?

Not reliably. On the UK monthly record since 2016, the cheapest month on average is May at 47.30p and the dearest is October at 53.20p. That is a swing of 5.90p, worth about GBP 70.80 on 1,200 litres. Real moves come from crude, not the calendar.

When is the best time to order heating oil?

Ahead of the first sustained cold, not during it. October is the dearest month on the ten year record and it is also when demand spikes. The bigger lever is not waiting until the tank is nearly empty, because that removes your ability to choose the week.

How long does a tank of heating oil last?

A 1,200 litre fill covers most of a heating season for a well insulated three bedroom house and about half a season for a solid wall cottage with an older boiler. Work it from your own burn rate rather than from an average.

Why is my quote higher than the price published here?

The UK reading is a typical price for deliveries up to 1,000 litres, priced mid month. Your quote reflects your volume, your distance from the depot, the day of the week and how busy the tanker round is. The published figure is a benchmark, not an offer.

Why is the American figure months old?

The federal residential survey collects from October to March only. The last print of the season is dated 30 March 2026, so on 23 September 2026 it is 177 days old. Every site quoting a US retail figure in summer is quoting that same spring number, whether or not it says so.

What is the difference between NYMEX heating oil and what I pay?

NY Harbor ULSD is a wholesale barge price. It last closed at $5.21 a gallon on 15 September 2026. The last residential print was $5.54. The gap of $0.33 covers rack, trucking, dealer margin and tax.

Do I pay VAT on heating oil in the UK?

Yes, at the reduced rate of 5% for domestic quantities. At 90.01p a litre that is 4.29p of VAT on every litre, or about GBP 51.48 on a 1,200 litre order. Kerosene for heating carries no fuel duty.

What is ullage and why can I not order a full tank?

Ullage is the expansion space left above the fuel. Suppliers fill to roughly 95% of nominal capacity, so a 1,200 litre tank takes about 1140 litres and a 2,500 litre tank takes about 2375 litres. Order to that ceiling, not to the badge on the tank.

What is the minimum heating oil delivery?

In the UK, 500 litres is the common floor and the three national distributors we checked all state it. In the United States, 100 or 150 gallons is typical. Below the minimum you are usually buying an emergency delivery at a premium rate.

Will my oil boiler be banned?

There is no ban on using an existing oil boiler and no date on which one becomes illegal. The policy people are thinking of is the standard for new build and for replacement systems. Read the detail rather than the headline before you spend money on a switch.

Is a heat pump cheaper to run than an oil boiler?

At 90.01p a litre and a 90% boiler, oil heat costs about 9.57p a useful kilowatt hour. A heat pump beats that only if its seasonal efficiency and your electricity rate combine to less than that. Both halves matter, and the insulation of the house sets the efficiency.

What is HVO and can I run my boiler on it?

Hydrotreated vegetable oil is a drop in replacement fuel that needs a burner conversion. It is not widely on sale to households and it costs more per litre than kerosene. Treat any quoted saving as conditional on both supply and the conversion cost.

What is bioheat, B5, B10 or B20?

A blend of biodiesel into No. 2 heating oil at the stated percentage. Biodiesel carries less energy per gallon than No. 2, so a blended gallon delivers slightly less heat. The correction is small but it is real, and it is arithmetic rather than opinion.

How many gallons of heating oil does a house use per year?

It follows floor area, insulation and climate rather than a national average. Work it from degree days and your own burn rate. The annual burn mode on the fill desk shows the assumption it is using so you can correct it.

Should I take a cap price or a pre-buy plan?

A cap price charges a fee per gallon for a ceiling. That fee is spent whether or not the ceiling ever binds, so the break-even is the cap plus the fee. A pre-buy locks a price and locks you out of a fall. Both are bets, priced.

Is will-call or automatic delivery cheaper?

Automatic delivery removes your ability to pick the week, which is the main lever a household has. Will-call keeps that lever and hands you the run-out risk. Which is cheaper depends on whether you actually watch the price.

Which US state has the cheapest heating oil?

On the last full week of the season, nebraska was cheapest at $3.97 and delaware dearest at $5.91. That spread of $1.94 a gallon is $533.78 on a single 275 gallon fill.

Why is heating oil dearer in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK?

It is often cheaper, not dearer. Northern Ireland has the highest oil dependence in the UK, which supports a dense and competitive delivery market. The Consumer Council runs the only genuine weekly regional price survey in the country there.

Do you sell heating oil or pass my details to a supplier?

No. There is no lead form, no quote widget and no email capture anywhere on this site, and no supplier pays for placement. The only thing this site does is publish numbers with their sources and dates attached.

How much does heating oil cost? Twenty-four questions, answered short

Answers are kept to forty to sixty words. Where an answer contains a figure, that figure comes from the readings on this site and carries the same source and lag as it does everywhere else.

Primary sources for this page

EIA State Heating Oil and Propane ProgramWeekly residential delivered price of No. 2 heating oil, national and by state. Collected October to March. The survey pauses after the last March print and resumes in October, which is why every federal page shows March data all summer.
DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, table 4.1.1Monthly typical retail price of standard grade burning oil, the fuel sold to UK households as kerosene. Priced on the Monday nearest the 15th of the month, for deliveries of up to 1,000 litres, VAT at 5% included. This is the only official UK-wide domestic heating oil price series.
ASTM D3699 standard specification for kerosineThe specification behind the grade names. Paywalled, cited for the definition rather than quoted.
VAT rates on domestic fuel and powerDomestic heating oil is charged at the reduced rate of 5% on qualifying quantities.
Consumer Council for Northern Ireland home heating oil price checkerA genuine weekly regional survey, the only one of its kind in the UK. The page returned HTTP 403 to our checker on 10 September 2026, so no basket figure from it is restated on this site. Follow the link for the current week.

How much does heating oil cost, and twenty-three other questions