Northern Ireland home heating oil shortage causing rationing: Industry chief says 'unprecedented demand' to be relieved imminently

Some home heat oil suppliers across Northern Ireland are limiting the amount of fuel customers can order because of a severe shortage of supplies.

This has resulted in homeowners getting substantially less than they ordered due to rationing - in order to ensure nobody is left without heating at present.As the big freeze continues to bite, the average cost of 900 litres of home heating oil has gone up by more than £80 in the space of a week.But David Blevings, Executive Director at Northern Ireland Oil Federation, told the News Letter that there is no reason to worry about supply.

"Some distributors are just rationing supplies," he said. "We are waiting for a delivery boat coming in today [Friday] and some distributors are just rationing product to make sure everybody gets some.

"We have been hit with unprecedented demand - a cold snap came in and people were waiting to order closer to Christmas, at the last minute.

"Unfortunately that is a problem we have most years. But the delivery vessel is due to come into Belfast today [Friday] to replenish supplies."

He is not sure where it is coming from but it could be Milford Haven in Wales.

"Since the Ukraine crisis we have had to look further afield for product sometimes."

He acknowledged that the price of heating oil has gone up recently

"Prices are creeping up slightly and again that is just a mixture of demand and supply."

But he insisted that nobody needs to panic about sourcing oil before Christmas.

"There will not be any difficulty in anyone in Northern Ireland sourcing oil over the next week. Absolutely not. I would be quite confident with the ship coming in today, anybody who is ordering oil will get their deliveries next week."

The format that rationing has been taking place, he said, is that a householder ordering 900 litres might only get 500 at this time.

"So nobody will be left without oil," he added.

On Thursday the News Letter reported a huge rise in cost of home heating oil in Northern Ireland, while the price of petrol and diesel fell significantly

The average cost of 900 litres of home heating oil has gone up by more than £80 in the space of a week.

According to the Consumer Council’s weekly cost of living survey, the cost of filling a tank of that size now stands at £847. The same amount of home heating oil last week would have set you back £766.

The most expensive location is Lisburn and Castlereagh where 900 litres costs on average around £13 more than it does in Mid Ulster.

There is slightly better news on petrol and diesel.

The average cost of a litre of petrol has come down to 148.7p from 152.4p, the first time it has been under £1.50 per litre since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The lowest price for petrol was in Armagh at 139.9p while the dearest was 155.4p in Londonderry.

Diesel now stands at 172.5p, down from 169.9p last week. As with petrol, it has returned to the price it was in March.