Quote Originally Posted by ramAnag View Post
Same goes for heating oil. Filled my 1200 litre tank up about four weeks ago for 60p pl. Today it’s around 1.31 pl and I don’t believe all the oil they’re selling has reached here in the last 18 days. Heating oil customers often buy up to three weeks in advance to get a better deal, i.e. if you want it tomorrow it’s often much more expensive than if you give them a 20 day delivery window, but there are reports of orders being cancelled and customers being told they have to reorder at the new, much higher, price.
There’s bound to be some profiteering going on but in terms of your purchase of heating oil, you aren’t actually paying for your oil, you’re paying for the next delivery of oil your supplier needs to buy, which will have risen in price from their suppliers etc - added to which wholesale suppliers keep the bare minimum stock they can get away with and profit margins are quite thin. My knowledge is of marine fuels (mainly diesel) but I think the same rules apply. Such ‘close to retail’ entities are too small or to unsavvy to hedge, many years ago my old farmer boss used to hedge a bit by keeping a spare bowser full of oil but it got pinched