This week, kerosene prices in Ireland rose sharply.
According to price monitoring from Oilprices.ie, the average price of 500 litres of kerosene in Ireland rose from €494.79 a week earlier to €793.50 nationally, with Dublin averaging €806.68 on 6 March 2026, illustrating how quickly heating oil prices can respond to movements in global energy markets.
Heating oil remains closely tied to households in Ireland. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) estimates that around 95% of kerosene demand for heating in Ireland comes from the residential sector, which is why changes in the kerosene market are noticed quickly across the country.
But not all heating fuels behave this way.
Woodfuel markets follow a very different pattern.
Both fuels heat homes, but the economic systems behind them are not the same. Understanding that difference helps explain why heating oil prices can spike suddenly while woodfuel markets tend to move in slower phases.
Oil Prices Follow Global Commodity Markets
Heating oil sits inside the wider petroleum economy.
Crude oil is traded continuously on global commodity markets, and its price reacts rapidly to geopolitical developments, supply disruptions and changes in global demand. When crude oil prices rise, refined products such as diesel and heating oil usually follow.
Ireland imports nearly all of its heating oil, which means domestic prices are closely tied to international markets. When crude prices move on global exchanges, kerosene prices in Ireland typically adjust soon after.
This structure explains why heating oil prices can change quickly, particularly during periods of geopolitical uncertainty or supply disruption.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) documented how global crude markets surged following geopolitical disruption in early 2022, demonstrating how quickly oil prices can react to supply concerns and market expectations.
Why Prices Moved So Quickly This Week
This week’s rise in kerosene prices across Ireland reflects how closely heating oil is tied to the global oil system.
A large share of the world’s oil production and shipping routes passes through the Middle East, one of the most important regions in the global energy network. When tensions rise there, oil markets tend to react quickly as traders consider the possibility that supply could be disrupted.
Even the risk of disruption can influence prices. Oil markets adjust as buyers move to secure supply and traders factor uncertainty into future deliveries.
Because heating oil is refined directly from crude oil and imported into Ireland, those shifts in global oil markets can move through the supply chain quickly. Importers and distributors respond to changes in wholesale prices, and kerosene prices often follow soon after, as is the case this week.
For households, this can make heating oil appear unpredictable. But what it reflects is the speed of the global oil system itself, a network that reacts quickly to changes in risk, supply and expectations.
Woodfuel Comes From a Different System
Woodfuel products such as firewood, briquettes and wood pellets are produced through a very different supply chain.
They are not traded on global commodity exchanges in the same way as oil. Instead, they are produced within regional forestry and sawmill industries.
In the case of wood briquettes, the feedstock typically sits within the EU’s secondary woody biomass stream, which includes industrial by-products and residues from wood processing. These material flows include sawdust and other residues that form the raw material base for wood briquettes and similar densified fuels.
Briquette manufacturing, therefore, sits downstream of the timber industry rather than operating as a standalone energy commodity market.
This distinction matters when costs change.
When timber demand rises or energy costs increase, sawmills experience higher operating costs across their entire process. Those pressures then flow through the supply chain, including into byproducts such as sawdust used for briquettes.
As a result, the price of finished woodfuel products tends to move with broader timber and manufacturing costs rather than reacting instantly to daily commodity trading.
Kiln Drying Runs Mostly on Biomass
The same principle applies to kiln-dried firewood.
Across Europe, modern firewood kilns are typically heated using biomass generated from the forestry process itself. Bark, offcuts and other low-grade residues from sawmills are burned to produce the heat required for drying.
Electricity is still required to operate fans, conveyors and processing equipment, but the primary thermal energy used in drying normally comes from biomass rather than fossil fuels.
Because of this structure, woodfuel production is partly insulated from the direct price volatility seen in fossil energy markets.
However, the industry remains exposed to wider cost pressures affecting forestry, electricity and transport.
What the 2022 Energy Crisis Revealed
The European energy crisis in 2022 demonstrated how broader energy shocks can still affect the woodfuel sector.
Global oil markets surged following geopolitical disruption and tightening supply expectations. The IEA Oil Market Report documented how crude oil prices rose sharply during this period, reflecting the speed at which commodity markets react to supply uncertainty.
Across Europe, electricity prices also increased significantly as gas markets tightened. Energy-intensive industries saw operating costs rise across manufacturing sectors.
In woodfuel production, the pressure came less from exchange-traded fuel prices and more from electricity costs, timber processing expenses, and transport logistics, all of which moved higher at the same time.
Rather than reacting instantly like oil markets, the woodfuel sector experienced a slower cycle of rising costs followed by gradual adjustment as energy markets stabilised.
A Different Kind of Cost Curve
One way to understand the difference is to look at how production costs across the woodfuel industry evolved in recent years.
Instead of daily volatility, the sector experienced a broader cycle linked to the European energy crisis.
Production costs rose sharply during 2022 as electricity prices surged across Europe. As energy markets stabilised in the following years, those costs gradually eased and supply chains adjusted.
This pattern reflects how the woodfuel industry responds to structural changes in electricity prices, timber markets and logistics rather than reacting directly to commodity trading.
Two Very Different Energy Systems
Heating oil and woodfuel ultimately belong to two very different energy systems.
Oil prices respond quickly because crude oil is traded continuously across global financial markets. Traders react instantly to geopolitical events, shipping disruptions and supply forecasts. When those signals change, prices can adjust within hours.
Woodfuel moves to a different rhythm.
Its supply chain begins in forests and sawmills, where timber is harvested, processed and turned into physical materials. Sawdust becomes briquettes. Offcuts become biomass fuel. Production depends on forestry cycles, manufacturing capacity and transport logistics.
These processes take time.
When global oil markets move suddenly, kerosene prices can jump within days. Woodfuel markets, shaped by forestry supply chains and physical production systems, tend to adjust more gradually as conditions across the timber and energy sectors change.
Understanding that difference helps explain why some heating fuels appear volatile while others move through longer and slower price cycles.
A Final Perspective
Energy headlines often focus on sudden price spikes.
But behind those headlines sit very different systems.
Oil moves at the speed of financial markets and geopolitics. Woodfuel moves at the pace of forests, sawmills and physical production.
One reacts instantly to global events. The other follows the slower rhythms of the material world.
Recognising that difference makes it easier to understand why heating costs sometimes move so suddenly and why not all fuels behave the same way when energy markets shift.
Sources
Price observations and market context referenced in this article draw from publicly available energy market data and industry sources, including:
Oilprices.ie – Irish Heating Oil Price Tracker
Independent monitoring of kerosene prices across Ireland based on daily supplier data.
https://www.oilprices.ie/
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) – Energy Statistics and Price Monitoring
National energy authority reports covering Irish energy prices, fuel use and energy market trends.
https://www.seai.ie/data-and-insights/energy-statistics/
SEAI Case Study – Biomass Energy Use in Timber Processing
Example of biomass energy replacing fossil fuels in wood processing and kiln drying.
https://www.seai.ie/case-studies/cj-sheeran
International Energy Agency (IEA) – Oil Market Report, March 2022
Analysis of global oil market movements following the geopolitical disruptions of 2022. https://www.iea.org/reports/oil-market-report-march-2022
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) – Biomass Production, Supply, Uses and Flows in the European Union
EU scientific analysis explaining biomass supply chains, including the production of briquettes and pellets from forestry residues and sawmill by-products.
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC109354
European Commission – EU Bioenergy Factsheet (Solid Biomass)
Overview of how solid biomass fuels such as briquettes and pellets are produced from forestry residues and wood-processing by-products across Europe.
https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/renewable-energy/bioenergy/biomass_en
