Rural areas across the West Country see heating oil price more than double amidst Ukraine crisis

  • Watch Bob Cruwys' report

The price of heating oil has more than doubled within the past 6 months as the Ukraine crisis exacerbates the rising cost of fuel.

The war in Ukraine has seen fuel prices reach unprecedented levels with some suppliers unable to guarantee delivery dates or turning away new customers.

Heating oil is a product thousands across the West Country rely on for heating and hot water, particularly those living and working in rural areas.

According to the oil provider Boiler Juice, the UK average price per litre a year ago was 42 pence. By October 2021 it rose to 60 pence per litre, and this week it passed £1.20 per litre.

The price of heating oil has grown exponentially over the past year. Credit: Boiler Juice

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a spike in the price of crude oil globally. That has a direct and instant impact on the cost of heating oil in isolated countryside places like Tiverton.

The huge rise in global heating oil prices is a blow for those already struggling with the rising cost of living, and for businesses who rely on the fuel for their work.

John Gibson runs a campsite with log cabins on his working dairy farm where guests stay. To run the heating and generate hot water for the showers, Gibson uses Kerosene heating oil.

West Middlewick Farm in rural Tiverton relies on heating oil as fuel.

Gibson's West Middlewick Farm is located in the countryside in Tiverton, and heating oil is the only viable option for heating the water in such a rural location.

He payed double what he usually pays for the oil delivery this week.

"We were running very low and I was very worried about it. Obviously we had to pay what they said we had to pay, there was no questioning it", he said.

"We didn't phone around, we were just glad to get it in, because obviously we were running low," he added.

"The fuel companies are all very good and they're all doing their very best but when you're totally reliant you can't ask for a price because otherwise you might not get it."

"It's just getting it really that's the most important thing and what you pay is secondary," he added.

Cost of diesel sees biggest daily increase for more than 20 years
Is the government in denial about the looming economic crisis?

Fred Hanbury has been running a co-operative oil buying group called WOPEC for 12 years. It has almost 1000 members in the South West.

He groups local people's orders together to allow them to buy the oil in bulk, saving them all money in the process.

He told ITV News West Country that he has never seen the price of oil this high.

"During the start and the middle of the pandemic I was managing to obtain oil for 15p a litre and now it's in excess of £2 per litre. We country folk still mainly rely on heating oil."

He does however predict that the price will return to normal levels later this year.

"I'm hoping that the present situation in Ukraine will resolve itself and when that starts to happen, particularly when we get the nicer weather of late spring and early summer then the price will come down as it always does every year."