Past decade has seen sharp rise in home heating costs

As the cold spell bites and fuel delivery firms enjoy their busiest spell, it’s worth considering how home heating oil prices remain elevated even as the price of a barrel of oil has flatlined, writes Mark Godfrey. 

Irish vendors of kerosene are currently making deliveries for an average of €957 per 1,000 litres, which is well down on the peak of €1,400 in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and the price of crude oil jumped to €103 per barrel. A barrel of oil at the start of 2025 is averaging €71.87 per barrel.

Yet the current charge for kerosene is quite a bit higher than the average €673 charged for a 1,000-litre fill ten years ago, in January 2015 when crude oil was €48.3 per barrel. It’s also higher than the average price of €720/1000 litres in 2020 when a barrel of crude oil was averaging €63.05. All of the above suggests kerosene prices roughly track crude oil prices – but the rise in kerosene prices has been slightly higher than that of crude oil.