Big rise in cost of home heating oil in Northern Ireland in past week, price of petrol and diesel also increases

The latest Consumer Council figures show that the average cost of 900 litres of home heating oil has gone up by £50 from £873.31 to £923.34.

Home heating oil is now almost as dear as it has ever been since prices rocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine

It has only been dearer on three occasions – at the beginning of September and the middle of June and right after the start of the invasion in March.

It comes as the government confirmed that home heating oil customers would receive their £100 payment to help with energy costs in the form of a credit to electricity bills.

The £100 payment has been criticised as “inadequate” by many Northern Ireland politicians.

Carla Lockhart argued against the government’s “flawed logic” that the relatively modest payment of £100 reflected the fact that the cost of gas heating had risen more sharply than that of home heating oil.

She said: “The Government need to realise that £100 is nowhere near enough to offer in support for those heating their homes with oil this winter.

"When the Government made the announcement, they argued that the figure offered to households using oil was much less than the support for households with gas because oil prices had not increased as much as gas.

"This was always a flawed logic, but the steep price rise in the space of the last week shows that, using their logic, they ought to increase the level of support payment.

"£100 today would purchase 80 litres. Many firms would not even deliver such a small quantity."

She added: “The Government must get real and realise that the miserly level of support for households using oil will not be sufficient. I have made this clear in representations to the minister, and will keep the pressure on for an increase in payments.”

SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole said: “The derisory £100 in extra support being provided to home heating oil customers by the government will do extremely little to help people actually get oil into their tanks.

"Ignoring that most oil companies do not start delivering until a much larger order has been made, paying this money to people through their electricity bills will provide no help to those without disposable income because they are already struggling to pay for the bare necessities and can't afford to put any money towards buying oil in the first place.”He urged the government to adopt the SDLP’s proposal to provide 1000 litres of free home heating oil to every qualifying household through a voucher scheme: “The SDLP has proposed a solution that will help the majority of people in Northern Ireland heat their homes this winter and prevent them from getting ill or worse. We are only party that has attempted to address this desperate situation and we need to see the SDLP's plan introduced before it’s too late, temperatures are already plummeting and the pressure on families is increasing every day.

"We have seen similar support brought forward for gas customers and I see no valid reason why the same can't be done for those who rely on oil.”

No exact date was given for when the payment would be made, the statement from the government only indicated it would come “this winter”.

The government said: "Households eligible for these payments will receive £100 as a credit on their electricity bill this winter.

"The £100 payment has been calculated to ensure that a typical customer using heating oil does not face a higher rate of growth in their heating costs since last winter, in comparison to those using mains gas who are supported by the Energy Price Guarantee."

The government said that it would “continue to monitor the prices of alternative fuels, such as heating oil, and will consider further intervention if required to protect UK households from extraordinary fuel prices".

Households in Northern Ireland will all receive a £400 discount on bills through the Northern Ireland Energy Bills Support Scheme.

The £100 payment for home heating oil customers will be in addition to this.

So too is the Energy Price Guarantee which came into force from October 1, which the government said would mean that a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years.

The government say that this will save the average household at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October and is in addition to the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme payment for all households.It applies to all households in Great Britain, with the same level of support made available to households in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Council survey of petrol and diesel prices in Northern Ireland showed that in the past week a litre of petrol went up to 160.7p from 159.5p while diesel rose to 179.8p from 176.8p.

The cheapest average cost for a litre of petrol was in Lisburn at 155.9p, while the dearest was in Limavady at 166.4p.

The cheapest diesel on average was in Newtownabbey at 172.9p. The dearest average litre of diesel was found to be in Craigavon at 188.9p.

The cost of diesel in Northern Ireland reached its peak at 197.5p on June 30, while petrol peaked on same date at 189.9p.