Thousands of Scots who use oil to heat their homes are facing 'astronomical' bills due to a significant hike in the price of Kerosene, financial experts warn.
Advice Direct Scotland have warned that while most homes use gas or electric for heating, 129,000 houses in mainly rural and remote areas rely on oil - this makes up five per cent of all homes in Scotland.
Gas and electric will be rising in cost by April 1 but oil is expected to rise also.
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Crude oil prices have once against leaped up again on Monday to seven per cent with Brent oil reaching around £87 a barrel.
This comes as the EU considers banning oil from Russia.
The UK Government has already had a meeting with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a bid to pull together an oil deal as we plan to move away from using on Russian oil.
Figures compiled by the comparison site BoilerJuice show the average price for 1,000 litres of Kerosene oil (also known as paraffin) in the UK was £1.25 per litre including VAT on March 16.
That was down slightly on a four-year peak of £1.60 per litre on March 10 but it was still almost three times higher than the same day in 2021 when the price was 42p per litre.
And the cost per litre last week was nearly six times higher than at the end of April 2020, when the average price was 21p.
Domestic Kerosene prices in the UK are affected by a range of factors including crude oil prices, currency exchange rates and distribution and delivery costs.
Those who rely on oil are not protected by the energy price cap, which sets a limit on the maximum amount suppliers can charge for gas and electricity.
Advice Direct Scotland, which runs the country’s national consumer advice service consumeradvice.scot, encouraged anyone who is struggling with bills to contact the charity’s specialist advisers on 0808 164 6000.
The charity is also administering the Scottish Government’s £4 million Home Heating Support Fund for those who are having to ration their energy use.
Conor Forbes, head of policy with Advice Direct Scotland, said: “The soaring price of heating oil will have a huge impact on households in rural parts of Scotland, where thousands of homes are off grid.
"Oil is usually bought in bulk, so anyone needing to fill their tank right now so they can heat their homes faces an astronomical bill.
"But nobody has to struggle alone. Our advisers can provide free advice, and the Home Heating Support Fund that we administer on behalf of the Scottish Government is available for those rationing their energy use - with extra support available for households in remote or island communities."
More information is available at www.homeheatingadvice.scot.
