Alec Jones

The story of fine timings

The timing of the  January  delivery proved to be an unfortunate choice. In spite of The Donalds election and “drill baby drill” the weather intervened.

Our group members need advance warning for each delivery and the following delivery is also programmed so that members can decide about how much and when to order.

Our suppliers were asked for their quotes two days after the weathermen forecast a weeks freezing temperatures.   Prices started to rise and continued to rise for a whole week and consumers felt the chill and ordered emergency supplies even at the higher prices. This then put a strain on deliveries as suppliers received extra orders even at the higher prices (and out come the supplier excuses “one of our drivers has flu and another’s got Covid  …  or a wheels fallen off” metaphorically – or not !

Once our delivery price was agreed and deliveries started on Monday 20^th Jan the prices started to decline! If we’d bought a few days earlier or a week later, we’d have had a better deal. Nevertheless, the 60ppl price was a surprisingly good price, but we could have been luckier. In the oil business, this is called “Sod’s Law”

Emergency supplies are always available at Boilerjuice. The highest price seen was 92.75ppl for a delivery in 2 days time !!!   Lesson, in winter and cash flow permitting, store your cash in your oil tank.

A big thank you!

As you all know, our oil club supports St Mary’s Church and each January members are asked if they would like to show their appreciation for the supplies by making a donation. We estimate that households make annual savings in excess of £100.00.

The response this year January has been terrific and the Churchwarden and the PCC have expressed their gratitude for your kind generosity and send their thanks.

There is still time to donate. Absolutely no obligation.  £5.00 is good, £10.00 gooder, £30.00 better.

Account Name:        St Marys Black Bourton PCC
Sort Code:                 40-47-07
Account number:     11680188

Your organiser    AJ

Just over a year ago our oil price was 73.50 pence per litre.

This year, from January at 62.30ppl it has mostly declined to 54.00ppl, so we should be pleased that it is now cheaper by about 30%.

Nevertheless, if Ukraine hadn’t happened and October 7th in Israel, perhaps prices might have been down by 50%. There again some other disaster might have happened, but at least we have The Donald …

Conclusion : Don’t tempt providence by making any predictions.

Our group has bought 200k litres in 2024, in nine deliveries.

I estimate that through group buying we benefit by 4 to 5ppl over prices that we might each achieve buying individually, which represents an average saving of approximately £110 per household. Some will save £250.00+ / annum and others £50.00 or so.

As most of you know, the group operates, on a volunteer basis but every January we support the Fabric Fund of St Mary’s Church in Black Bourton and if each group member feels they have made a worthwhile saving and would like to make a donation to the fund in appreciation. The bank details for the church fabric fund are as follows:

Account name: St Mary’s Black Bourton PCC
Sort code: 40-47-07
Account number: 11680188

These details will also be sent out when the January delivery letter is distributed.

From your organiser, and wishing you all the seasonal greetings.

Oil prices are as ever “living on the edge”.  Each month we seem to have new influences affecting the supply price. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the sabotage of Baltic gas supply lines, Israel and the Gaza strip and now the dangers of attacks on shipping in the the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea practically closing the Suez Canal.

Nevertheless, prices have come down from their highest which was in February 2023 at 82.65ppl and down to 52.98ppl in June and up again to 70.05ppl in November.

The lesson to learn is to fill up (usually) in mid summer, if feasible.  Another advantages of group buying are:

• We benefit from a 1000 litre price for a delivery of only 500 litres.
• Our prices tend to be 4 to 5ppl less than buying individually
• A 500 litre delivery makes most of us who have 1200 to 1600 litre tanks,  more flexible in being able to buy at advantageous prices.  IE. In February, only buy 500 litres which could be enough to last a household until the (usual) cheaper prices kick-in in the spring and summer.
• For those with the space and finance, it is always worth thinking of installing a tank(s) big enough to allow purchasing just once a year at summertime prices, or at any other time when prices are lower.

Our group contains several members who have installed big tanks. One of those topped up in the summer and made savings of 31% over the average price which equalled a saving of £460 over only 8 months. Do the arithmetic.

Finally, as per usual the plea went out early this month, for members to show their appreciation for this voluntary service and to donate to the St Mary’s Church, Black Bourton, Fabric Fund Appeal.  In only 3 weeks the response has been terrific and hopefully more of you will donate in the coming days. There is zero obligation.  Here are the details of the Fund’s bank account.

Account Number:  11680188  Sort Code  404707.  The wording of the account needs to be precise:    St Marys Black Bourton PCC Fabric Fund  (note, no stops, commas etc)

The PCC have added their thanks below:

On behalf of the PCC to all members of the Oil Club who have made a donation to our fabric fund (and new community hub) – a massive thank you for your generous contributions. Last year this amounted to well over £500 and this year looks like you’re well on the way to significantly increasing that! Thank you.
Lawrence Clarke    Church Warden

A happy New Year to everyone in our buying group.

Our next delivery will be during the w/c 15^th January and you will receive details of price and supplier on Wednesday 10^th January.

As most of you know – but not the newcomers – January is the month that I remind everyone that this Oil Buying service is free of charge. We all save through “bulk buying”. I believe that we all benefit to the tune of 4 or 5 pence per litre, which saves £50 on a 1,000 litre order.  The approximate average consumption per household within our group is 2,650 litres per annum, which gives an average saving of £132 a year, and some will be saving £300+. I know that several of our group are saving between £400 and £600 a year compared to what they were previously paying.

If you feel that you are making savings through our bulk buying and would like to show your appreciation and contribute to St Mary’s Church Black Bourton’s Fabric Fund, I will be sending the donation  details with the first communication on January 10th.  Donations are strictly voluntary, nobody should feel under any obligation.

Let’s hope that prices return to sensible levels in 2024.

WARNING MESSAGE: BEWARE SUPPLIERS OFFERING “FREE WIFI TANK READERS” or  “WE’LL TOP UP YOUR TANK WHEN WE’RE PASSING and pass on the transport economies” Yea, sure !

Apart from regular warnings as just mentioned, I hope the service also helps to jog the memory of some members and therefore limit the times when we might run out of fuel.

If you are not a member and would like to join, please apply at blackboil.jones@gmail.com.

Only sixty oil shopping days left to Christmas. We don’t want any of our members to run out of heating oil during the festive season.

For the benefit of a surge of new comers to our buying group it might be worth mentioning that the price of oil always seems to rise around the Christmas / New Year period!!  Now call me an old cynic (or just old if you like) but at that time of year I describe all our suppliers as a cartel.

How is it that the prices quoted always rise in unison, approximately 3 weeks before and 2 weeks after the New Year. In addition, it appears that all the suppliers give their drivers extra time off, so deliveries are difficult to achieve, especially if you buy as an individual.

So this year we are planning for a delivery week commencing 6^th November and 11^th December then not until w/c 15^th January.

The purpose of these notes is to advise you to calculate your needs carefully in advance to avoid running out of fuel throughout the holiday period and beyond.

Wishing you a happy Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year.

We would like to kick off this month’s newsletter by thanking Deb Pateman for her hard work and commitment to the BBVA. Deb has decided to step back after more than four years of service and we think everyone in the village can appreciate the effort she put into the countless events she fronted during her tenure as Chairlady of the BBVA. Moving forward, James Coxon was voted in as our new Chair last week.

It is fair to say that there have been some challenging times within our community organisations of late. With debates and difficulties surrounding new equipment in and around the play park, this has caused a level of upset for our village.

Firstly, your village organisation wants to reaffirm its commitment to the people of Black Bourton and we would love to hear from you all on how we can satisfy more of your needs, how we can become a closer-knit community and any other suggestions you may have on the onward success of the BBVA itself. Please do this by sending an email to: bbvacommittee@gmail.com.

The BBVA wants to continue with some of the planned events this year, starting with the Village Drinks on Saturday July 1st. This is a wonderful opportunity for the whole village to get together, meet some new people and enjoy some refreshments provided by the BBVA. The event will run from 2.00pm until 5:00pm and will be held in the play park – do please all come along.

Moving forward your committee will be working closer than ever with the Parish Council and the PCC to support our village and the improvements to St Mary’s Church to evolve this important building to become more of a ‘Hub’ for local residents. The committee is very much focussed on running enjoyable events for all of the village to enjoy and to raise important funds for worthwhile projects. Both with a view to enhance and grow a fulfilling society.

To help us achieve the above, the BBVA is actively recruiting new committee members to play an important part in the future of our community. This gives our local people a chance to do more for our village and help with events that make us proud of where we live. We can’t do any of this without the support of you all, so if you are interested – please send an email to: bbvacommittee@gmail.com. If you are keen to help but perhaps not sit on the committee, we would still love to hear from you as we will always need help for the upcoming events.

Finally, we do expect to announce more updates on our committee and upcoming events in due course, and this will all be shared as soon as we possibly can.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Sincerely,

BBVA

bbvacommittee@gmail.com

In April 2022 our group paid 89.95 pence / litre for our fuel oil – significantly up from 61.50ppl the previous month. It was the first price we’d had after Putin’s invasion. I hope our next price towards the end of April, might even be below the 60.00ppl level, but no guarantees.

Our new supplier has successfully delivered two months supplies and it’s good to have three or four dependable sources for quotes and for supplies.  I trust our members will let me know if you have any difficulties with deliveries or with the drivers.

Sweetfuels have been taken over but will continue to provide the same service, though last month their quote was a full 10ppl more then Red Horse Vale !

We have six suppliers who provide us with monthly quotes. Watsons still won’t quote us.  Two or three others very rarely quote low enough, so we need to look after the reliable ones by paying our invoices promptly.  Pleased to say that we have a very good record, congrats to all.

Hopefully prices will continue to fall now that our tropical spring and summer approaches.

I have noticed recently that www.boilerjuice.com have become much more competitive in recent months, so much so that if any of our members run out of fuel between deliveries (it does happen), they could do worse than checking their easy to access prices.

Fact file:  Do you know what Putin or Putain means in French?   We did laugh.

Firstly, a very big thank you to those members who have donated to St Mary’s Church via the Oil Club annual appeal. The church appreciates every single penny, let alone the pounds.

Not very much to report about oil prices, because as you all know it depends on this awful war in Ukraine, being waged by Putin.  Prices are unlikely to stabilise until a solution is found.

However, you might have noticed that we have a new supplier in the last few months, who appear to be very efficient.  If any of you experience any problems with any of our suppliers, then please blow the whistle on them.

A funny thing happened this week when I asked six suppliers for their prices.   I had two email addresses for the same business and as I wasn’t sure which to use, I asked them both.   I received two separate quotes, probably from different offices, but the two quotes were 4.10ppl apart! Neither was the lowest price.

Being a cynical old man, this encourages me to think that they have more ‘pennies to play with’ than they plead.

If you are aware of any other suppliers who might be interested in our business, then please let me know.