Ordinary Ledger: €174 per 100 litres, €13 between Hamburg and Hesse

If your house heats with oil, the ledger this morning has one line that matters, and it is quieter than the headlines.

The price. FastEnergy’s national average for standard heating oil, for a 3,000-litre order including delivery and VAT, was €174.23 per 100 litres at 05:10 this morning¹. That is down 83 cents on yesterday and 78 cents on a week ago¹. Further back the picture is less kind: €165.54 a month ago, €133.17 three months ago and €95.90 a year ago, a rise of 81.68% over the year¹.

The map. Where you live matters almost as much as when. FastEnergy’s state table put Hamburg lowest this morning at €165.92 and Hesse highest at €178.97¹. Berlin, Bremen and Brandenburg each fell by around €2.40 to €2.50 overnight; Saarland and Thuringia did not move¹. The company puts the regional gaps down to supply routes, competition between dealers and local demand¹.

Desk arithmetic: the €13.05 per 100 litres between Hamburg and Hesse is about €390 on a 3,000-litre order.

What’s in the litre. Most of the price is not the dealer’s. In FastEnergy’s breakdown, purchase costs are about two-thirds, VAT about 16%, the CO₂ charge about 8.6% and the fixed oil tax 6.14 cents a litre; the dealer’s own margin and costs are 2.48%¹. That is why a move in crude never passes through to your bill one for one.

What you can do. The advice is unglamorous: watch the market, avoid emergency orders, order a larger amount if you can, and consider a joint order with neighbours¹. Ordering together spreads the delivery cost; a gauge checked now avoids the phone call in January. Nothing here is investment advice.