Heating oil has become significantly more expensive in recent months. The price has increased by around a quarter since mid-July, according to data from the comparison portal Heizoel24.
Anyone who still has to fill their heating oil tank due to the upcoming heating season can at least console themselves by looking abroad, because compared to other European countries, things in Germany are not that bad, as data from the EU Commission shows.
Several factors
As of last Monday, EU data shows the price of heating oil in Germany at an average of 1.214 euros per liter. That was a good 8 cents less than the weighted European average. Heating oil was cheaper in nine countries – especially Malta and Lithuania. No current prices were available for four countries and heating oil was more expensive in 13 countries than in Germany – with the highest prices in Denmark and Portugal.
If you look at the direct neighboring countries, heating oil in Luxembourg, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Poland is a few cents cheaper than in Germany. In some cases it is significantly more expensive – in addition to the already mentioned Denmark, also in Austria and France. No value was available for the Netherlands and the EU does not publish any values for Switzerland.
Oliver Klapschus from Heizoel24 attributes the fact that prices in Germany are rather low in comparison to several factors: Some of the differences are due to taxes and duties, he says. Added to this are logistics and competition. The amount of oil heating in a country also plays an important role, explains Klapschus. There are many in Germany – that means more competition and makes it easier to arrange cheap routes to deliver to customers.
Possible causes
Compared to a year ago, heating oil prices in Germany have also fallen quite a bit and the position in a European comparison has also improved. At the end of September 2022, heating oil was still cheaper in 15 countries than in Germany, and more expensive in only 10, while no data was available for one country.
The price data from the EU Commission usually differs from those at Heizoel24 by a few cents. Possible reasons for this are different order conditions or a different population of providers from which data is collected. On Friday, the national average price at Heizoel24 for a delivery of 3,000 liters was an average of 1.1475 euros per liter.
