The American side of this site carries eight supplier pages. The British side carries none. That asymmetry is deliberate and it is worth explaining, because it is a statement about the data rather than about the companies.
The three national names, checked on 10 September 2026
| Company | Publishes a rate | How you get a price | Stated order range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certas Energy | No | Online quote form by postcode and volume, or phone | 500 to 5,000 litres |
| Watson Fuels | No | Web, phone or app. Price set by the market on the day you order | 500 to 3,500 litres |
| Rix Petroleum | No | Live online quote by postcode and volume, or local depot | Set by depot |
Certas puts it plainly on its own price guide page: it says it is unable to provide an accurate UK-wide live feed of current heating oil prices. That is the largest distributor in the country describing the same data problem this site is built around.
Why there is no UK supplier directory here
- 01There is no published consumer register of UK heating oil suppliers to build one from. The HMRC controlled oil approval is a tax control and is not published as a searchable list.
- 02The company register can be filtered by activity code, but the result is a few hundred usable rows against a market of several hundred real distributors, with no way to tell which of them serve households.
- 03A directory built from that would be a page per company with nothing on it except a name and a town. That is a thin page wearing a local name, and it is the thing the build rules on this site forbid.
- 04None of them publishes a rate, so the one column that would justify the page cannot be filled.
Never call a UK company a licensed or registered heating oil dealer. There is no such consumer credential here.
What the controlled oil scheme actually is
The registered dealer in controlled oil scheme is an HMRC approval to deal in rebated fuel. It exists to control duty, not to certify service quality or pricing, and it is not published in a form a household can search. Describing a company as registered on that basis would imply a consumer protection that does not exist.
The ownership point
Several UK heating oil price comparison sites are owned by fuel distributors. That is not a scandal and it is not hidden in the filings, but it does mean the price you see on a comparison page can be a price the page owner is selling. When you read a UK oil price online, the first question is who benefits from the number being what it is.
This site benefits from nothing. It sells no oil, takes no commission and runs no lead form, which is stated in the footer of every page for exactly this reason.
Primary sources for this page
- HMRC Excise Notice 192, registered dealers in controlled oilThe RDCO scheme. It is a statutory approval to deal in rebated oil, it is not published as a searchable consumer register, and it is not a quality or price guarantee.
- DCC plc investor relationsParent group disclosures covering the Certas Energy business.
- DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, table 4.1.1Monthly typical retail price of standard grade burning oil, the fuel sold to UK households as kerosene. Priced on the Monday nearest the 15th of the month, for deliveries of up to 1,000 litres, VAT at 5% included. This is the only official UK-wide domestic heating oil price series.
- Consumer Council for Northern Ireland home heating oil price checkerA genuine weekly regional survey, the only one of its kind in the UK. The page returned HTTP 403 to our checker on 10 September 2026, so no basket figure from it is restated on this site. Follow the link for the current week.