Are you struggling to keep up with the domestic heating oil market?

As we move slowly into the colder months, volatility in the domestic heating oil market is becoming a hot topic.

Here we summarise what is happening and what Affinity Fuels are doing to try and help.

As many people are aware, volatility in the domestic heating oil market is driven by a combination of global geopolitical events, rapid wholesale price shifts for refined kerosene, and localised supply chain pressures.

Global and Wholesale Drivers

• Geopolitical Tensions: Conflicts in major oil-producing regions, such as the Middle East, create sudden uncertainty and shockwaves through global energy supplies.
• Refined Product Spikes: Heating oil (kerosene) is refined from crude oil, but its price can surge much faster than crude itself during supply squeezes due to competing demands from aviation fuel and diesel.
• Currency Fluctuations: Because global oil is traded in US dollars, a weakening pound makes importing fuel more expensive for UK suppliers.

Local and Operational Pressures

• Distributor Business Models: Most local heating oil distributors hold very little storage (often only a couple of days' worth) and buy fuel daily at current market rates, acting as price takers who must immediately pass on replacement costs.
• Demand Surges and Panic Buying: Unexpected cold snaps or sudden news-driven buying waves lead to a rush for delivery slots, stretching tanker capacity and widening delivery times. This will become more apparent as we move into the colder months.
• Regional Logistics: Rural or off-grid homes face can face higher delivery and haulage costs depending on their distance from central terminals and local supplier competition.

Whilst Affinity Fuels cannot influence these trends, they have developed a WhatsApp channel to give domestic heating oil customers a quick and easy way to receive market insights, heating oil updates and useful fuel news directly to their phones.

It’s a great way for customers to keep up to date with what’s happening in the heating oil market and help them make informed decisions about when to top up their tanks.

Sign up to Thinking Fuel via this link and you will be given access to the channel.

Once you have signed up, you won’t be able to reply to messages on the chat and customers won’t see other people’s phone numbers etc.

We’re really excited to get this up and running and hope it becomes a really useful way of keeping our customers informed with quick, timely heating oil updates.