Oil orders shot up as customers panicked
SPEEDING ON THE SNOW Nicola O'Leary on the snow at 'The Rocks' in Wexford.
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HOUSEHOLDERS in Wexford were panic buying home heating oil to see them through the cold snap.
Home owners, who filled their tanks just before Christmas, were inundating oil and kerosene companies last week seeking tank top-ups in the big freeze.
'People were panicking. They thought the bad weather was going to last for months. These are people who only got oil before Christmas,' a spokesman for Rosslare Fuels said.
She noted that people shouldn't be overly anxious. 'If they have half a tank they could let their oil run all day and night for a month and they still wouldn't run out.'
The company were 'busier than normal' with people calling for fuel. 'Some people were telling us that they were running out so we delivered, but that was not the case in all instances,' she said, adding that some deliveries were impossible as roads were impassable for the delivery tanks.
'The guys had to be careful. Where they could normally do 40 to 50 deliveries in one day, we found that they could only get out to do 15 to 25 in that weather. If roads are not safe, they just can't deliver,' she said.
Meanwhile, Wexford's Campus Oil also found themselves 'at least two days behind' in deliveries last week because of the weather.
'We only had two trucks out of eight on the road on Thursday,' a company spokesman said.
She noted that urgent calls from people whose tanks had emptied are being prioritised. 'People were panicking. If people got oil before Christmas it's unlikely that they needed a refill so soon.'
Bates Oil noted that people in Wexford were being 'very understanding' when told that deliveries could not be made speedily, and in some instances not at all.
'People realised that some trucks just could not get to houses on a hill,' a spokesman said.
'Trucks were out delivering, but it was very slow.' she said.
- Anne Marie O'CONNOR
