As featured in MoneySavingExpert The Times The Guardian

Heating oil price history

Heating oil prices in December 2016

The Fueltool average for heating oil was 43.72p a litre excluding VAT in December 2016. That is about £459 for 1,000 litres including 5% VAT.

Compare prices at your postcode Prices since 2011
43.72paverage a litre, ex VAT
40.00plowest day, 1 December 2016
45.27phighest day, 22 December 2016
£459for 1,000 litres at the average, VAT included

How it compares

December 2016 against the month before and a year earlier

On the month before

+11.7%

43.72p against 39.14p in November 2016: up 4.58p a litre.

On the same month a year earlier

+46.2%

43.72p against 29.91p in December 2015: up 13.81p a litre.

Day by day

Daily heating oil prices in December 2016

Daily average, pence a litre excluding VAT, by day of December. The ring marks the lowest day and the filled dot the highest.
Day Average p a litre, ex VAT On the day before Listings counted
44.95p 0.00p 195
44.95p 0.00p 195
44.95p +0.15p 191
44.80p -0.08p 188
44.88p 0.00p 185
44.88p 0.00p 185
44.88p 0.00p 185
44.88p 0.00p 185
44.88p -0.39p 185
45.27p +0.13p 194
45.14p +0.21p 197
44.93p +0.15p 192
44.78p 0.00p 208
44.78p -0.10p 208
44.88p +0.33p 204
44.55p +0.10p 192
44.45p +0.02p 197
44.43p 0.00p 192
44.43p +0.45p 194
43.98p +1.40p 188
42.58p 0.00p 174
42.58p +0.03p 174
42.55p +0.55p 175
42.00p -0.58p 177
42.58p +0.87p 182
41.71p +0.02p 192
41.69p +0.32p 199
41.37p +0.12p 194
41.25p +0.05p 194
41.20p +1.20p 187
40.00p +1.55p 200

Figures for December 2016 run from 1 December 2016 to 31 December 2016. The month's average is the mean of these daily figures.

More months

Other months and years

Every month of 2016

December in other years

Every month since October 2011

The method

How these figures are made

  • What is averaged. Standard kerosene (heating oil) price listings on Fueltool for a 1,000 to 1,499 litre delivery, in pence a litre excluding VAT. Each day's figure is the middle (median) listing: half that day's listings were cheaper and half dearer, so one supplier's high price cannot pull it up. A supplier can list several areas and delivery options, so this is a figure from Fueltool's listings, not a survey of every UK supplier.
  • Which listings count on a day. A listing counts on a day if its price was last changed within the 30 days up to that day, so a supplier that has stopped trading drops out. The demo account is left out. Each day is judged by who was trading that day, not by who is trading now. The number of listings behind a day has ranged from about 24 a day (April 2012) to about 377 a day (October 2018). The monthly pages show the count for each day, so a month with fewer listings rests on fewer prices.
  • Months. A month's average is the mean of its daily figures. The lowest and highest day are the lowest and highest daily figure in that month. A change on the month before, or on the same month a year earlier, is shown only where both months have at least 14 days of records.
  • Typing errors. Prices are typed in by suppliers and sometimes wrongly (4050 for 40.50, for example). A price under 15p or over £2.50 a litre, or under half or over double that day's middle price, is left out: 1,236 prices outside 15p to £2.50, and a further 2,376 of the 701,945 listings that otherwise counted. Six suppliers entered prices 50p too high from 17 to 21 May 2014; those prices are left out. Two suppliers did the same from 21 to 29 January 2019, and those prices are left out too.
  • Gaps in the record. Daily records start on 27 October 2011. There are no records for 4 to 23 December 2018 (20 days), 24 to 27 December 2019 (4 days) or 19 May 2022 to 26 April 2023 (343 days). Those days are left blank. Nothing is filled in or estimated, and a month with fewer days than it should have says how many it has.
  • VAT. Every pence figure excludes VAT. Pound amounts for 1,000 litres add VAT at 5%, the rate on domestic heating oil.
  • Using the figures. Free to quote with a credit and a link to Fueltool.co.uk. Today's live average is shown on the heating oil prices today page and can differ from the latest daily record. The last two years of the daily record are also available as data from the open price feed.

What would a fill cost at your home?

These are averages across Fueltool's listings. Your postcode, quantity and delivery option shape the price you are quoted.

Compare prices