German consumers stocked up on heating oil in the first week of February as prices fell.
Traded heating oil volumes reported to Argus jumped by almost a third on the week, and prices fell by almost €2/100l on average nationwide between 3 February and 6 February.
Many consumers had held off from buying in the week before to see if prices would drop, traders said. Consumers were further spurred on by a drop in temperatures after a relatively mild January.
Privately owned heating oil tanks nationwide reached their lowest level since the beginning of July on 6 February at just over 52pc, Argus MDX data show. Industrial diesel tanks were lower in January than in the previous five years.
Diesel demand is still low, traders said. In the first six weeks of 2025, diesel volumes reported to Argus dropped marginally and imports have remained largely unprofitable. Production cuts in southern Germany have yet to lead to any significant product shortages, with domestic supply sufficient to cover demand.
Both the Bayernoil consortium's 215,000 b/d Vohburg-Neustadt refinery in Bavaria and the Miro joint venture's 310,000 b/d Karlsruhe refinery continue to produce at reduced levels. They shut down portions of their production within days of each other because of technical problems.
Production at Karlsruhe is not expected to return to normal levels until the beginning of March, a departure from the original schedule which saw production increase again in mid-February.
Overall production is due to remain reduced in March even with the increase in Karlsruhe, however. The 125,000 b/d Vohburg site of the Vohburg-Neustadt refinery will be taken offline entirely for maintenance works, along with several units in the 90,000 b/d Neustadt site, which has yet to resume production after a fire on 17 January.
OMV plans to take its 77,000 b/d Burghausen refinery in Bavaria offline for maintenance works at the end of March.
The first of two permanent production cuts scheduled for 2025 will take place in March, when Shell will cease crude distillation at the Wesseling site of its 334,000 b/d Rhineland refinery complex. The second permanent cut is due for the end of the year at BP's 258,000 b/d Gelsenkirchen refinery in west Germany. BP said on 6 February it is seeking a buyer for the refinery, and said it will go ahead with the planned reduction in crude capacity nonetheless.
