1. Is there a single UK kerosene price today
No. Heating oil is sold in a competitive local market, not a regulated national one, so there is no equivalent of the Ofgem cap and no single official daily figure for the whole of the UK. The closest thing to a dated snapshot is the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland's price checker. Its reading for 10 September 2026 put a 500 litre delivery at an average of £500.40, and a 900 litre delivery at £887.20, both around 99 to 100 pence a litre.
That figure is regional, because prices vary by postcode, delivery distance, order size and supplier margin as well as by the wholesale market. If you are in England, Scotland or Wales, treat it as an indicator of where the wholesale market sits, not as your own quote, and get two or three live local quotes before you order.
2. What Northern Ireland's price checker showed on 10 September 2026
Short answer: around 99 to 103 pence a litre depending on order size, and up sharply from the same time last year. The table below is drawn directly from the Consumer Council's 10 September 2026 update, which gives average costs by delivery size across Northern Ireland's council areas.
| Delivery size | Average cost, 10 September 2026 | Approx. price per litre |
|---|---|---|
| 300 litres | £309.86 | 103p |
| 500 litres | £500.40 | 100p |
| 900 litres | £887.20 | 99p |
The pattern holds across the UK: the larger the order, the lower the price per litre, since delivery cost and margin spread over more litres. The Consumer Council also found a modest spread within Northern Ireland itself, from £308.07 for 300 litres in Causeway Coast and Glens up to £313.71 in Newry, Mourne and Down, a spread of £5.64 on a 300 litre order. That kind of gap, not the headline average, is what a real postcode comparison shows.
For context, the Competition and Markets Authority's market study, published 15 July 2026, recorded a spring spike: heating oil peaked around 104 pence a litre in March 2026, up 64% on February, then about 123 pence in April, 92% above February, before easing back to roughly 104 pence in May. A typical 500 litre order that cost about £320 in February had risen to about £520 by the March peak, a rise the CMA linked to wholesale cost increases, while criticising that some suppliers had still not compensated affected customers.
Sponsored
3. Why the Ofgem price cap does not apply to heating oil
Short answer: the Ofgem cap protects gas and electricity customers on standard tariffs, and heating oil is explicitly excluded. Ofgem states that prices for heating oil and Liquid Petroleum Gas "are not covered by the price cap but are set by fuel markets and can change quickly." The cap running 1 October to 31 December 2026 was confirmed on 26 August 2026 at £1,723 a year for a typical dual-fuel household, a 4% rise driven mostly by gas costs; see our energy price cap October 2026 page and Ofgem price cap forecast.
The reason dates to a 2011 competition investigation, which found off-grid heating fuel markets competitive enough that a cap risked discouraging suppliers from serving remote areas. Oversight instead falls to the Competition and Markets Authority, whose July 2026 study, prompted by the spring price spike, called for "stronger safeguards, including regulatory oversight and better support for vulnerable consumers," in the words of CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell, rather than a cap itself.
4. What actually moves your kerosene price
Short answer: the same crude and refined-product market that sets diesel and petrol prices, filtered through the pound and your local delivery cost. UK kerosene is priced off the wholesale gasoil and heating oil futures market, which tracks Brent crude. Brent closed the week of 11 September 2026 at $103.98 a barrel after a weekly high of $107.60, trading above $100 all week amid Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities, reported strikes near Kharg Island, and the 11 September seizure of the Yemeni port of Mokha near the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a route that carries about 12% of global oil shipments.
Three things then determine what a Brent move turns into on your invoice: the pound-dollar exchange rate, since crude is priced in dollars while your supplier bills in sterling; your delivery region, as remote areas carry a higher cost per litre even at an identical wholesale price; and your order size, as the Northern Ireland table above shows.
The wider supply picture argues against assuming this passes quickly. The IEA's report of 11 September 2026 projects world oil demand falling 2.5 million barrels a day in 2026, a decline it compares to the four largest demand shocks of the past 60 years, and flags record diesel prices; kerosene, diesel and heating oil are distillates from the same barrel, so a tight diesel market means a tight heating oil market too. See our heating oil price glossary entry for the terms.
5. Who this affects: off-grid households and heating oil
Short answer: about 1.5 million UK households heat with oil, concentrated in rural areas and, above all, Northern Ireland. The CMA put households that depend on heating oil for warmth and hot water at 1.5 million in its 15 July 2026 study. That sits within a larger group: the House of Commons Library, updated 11 September 2026, estimates 4.8 million households across Great Britain, 16.0% of domestic properties in 2024, were off the mains gas grid at all, a figure covering oil, LPG, coal, biomass and renewables together.
Northern Ireland is the extreme case: a separate Library briefing, citing 2021-2022 census data, puts 49.5% of Northern Ireland households on heating oil as their sole source, against 3.5% in England and Wales and 5.1% in Scotland, using the same 2021 census data, per House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10609, which is why the Consumer Council's checker is the closest thing to a dated UK price series. Off-grid households considering a switch can check the boiler upgrade scheme calculator, and pensioner households the winter fuel payment eligibility rules, unrelated to the price cap.
6. The decision rule: tank level, order size and group buying
Short answer: order by tank level, not by trying to call the bottom of the market, and buy in the largest volume your tank and budget allow. If your tank is below a third full, order now rather than waiting for a dip that may not come before you run out. Between a third and two thirds, split the order. Above two thirds, you can afford to wait, but line up quotes so you can act within a day.
- 500 litres versus 1,000 litres. The Northern Ireland data above shows the smaller 300 litre order costing more per litre, around 103p, than a 900 litre order at around 99p, since delivery and margin costs spread over more litres. A bigger single delivery usually beats several small top-ups per litre, though it ties up more cash at once.
- Group or collective buying schemes. Rural communities and some councils run oil-buying clubs that pool neighbours' orders into one larger delivery, capturing a similar per-litre discount without a big tank.
- Get more than one quote. Prices for the same date and volume can differ between suppliers in the same postcode.
See what a further move in crude would do to a typical UK heating oil order.
Run the scenario7. Outlook for the rest of 2026: what to watch
Short answer: the Ofgem gas and electricity cap tells you nothing about your oil bill, so watch the oil market itself. The £1,723 cap confirmed on 26 August 2026 for October to December applies only to mains gas and electricity; oil households see no equivalent ceiling. What will move your price is Brent and the wholesale gasoil market, sterling, and how tight UK and European distillate stocks run into winter. The EIA's September 2026 outlook, published 9 September 2026, puts full-year Brent at an average of $91 a barrel for 2026 and $74 for 2027, a range rather than a single forecast.
Two things are worth checking before a large order. First, whether the Strait of Hormuz situation eases; ship-tracking data cited in early September showed roughly 12 to 13 tanker transits a day against around 100 before the crisis, and a reopening would likely pull crude, and kerosene, down. Second, the Consumer Council's price checker, updated regularly and the most current dated figure available; we will revisit this page as new readings appear.