Dip in price of home heating oil in Northern Ireland this week as war on Iran continues
There is sign of a dip in home heating oil costs in Northern Ireland.
Three of the six firms which the News Letter monitors have dropped their prices.
It comes after the cost of a barrel of the raw material behind it – Brent crude oil – rose over the last few days from about $100 on Monday to $110 on Wednesday.
At a St Patrick’s Day lunch on Tuesday, Donald Trump had repeated his insistence that America is “way ahead” in its war against Iran, and predicted “the oil prices will drop like a rock”.
He called the war “a short-term excursion”.
Meanwhile yesterday, Mr Trump also suggested the US could leave the security of the Strait of Hormuz to countries including the UK who have failed to respond to his demand for warships to secure the waterway.
The News Letter does daily monitoring of home heating oil prices of one firm operating in each county.
Here are the prices offered for 500 litres today (compared with the prices on Monday):
Firm in north Down: £593 (down from £615)
Firm in north Armagh: £562 (down from £567)
Firm in south Tyrone: £594.56 (down from £599.81)
Firm in mid-Antrim: £615.83 (unchanged)
Firm in Londonderry city: £599 (unchanged)
Firm in west Fermanagh: £599 (unchanged).
The full economic picture in the Province will become clearer tomorrow when the results of Consumer Council’s official weekly survey of petrol, diesel, and home heating oil are out.
When they were published last, on March 12, they showed that since the war began heating oil prices in the Province were up by about 94%, petrol was up 7.8%, and diesel was up by 12.8%.
On Friday, the UK government announced a £17m fund to help householders in the Province deal with their rising oil bills – though it is not yet clear how this will be parcelled out.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ [sic]
“That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”
Mr Trump has repeatedly berated countries including the UK for failing to respond to his request for support in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies.
Iran has closed off the strait to most shipping, with commercial vessels coming under attack in the region.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir defended his approach, insisting he would not allow UK forces to be drawn into a “wider war”.
He said: “I want to see this war end as quickly as possible.
“The longer it continues, the bigger the impact on the cost of living. And that’s why we intervened to support households with costs of heating oil.
“The best way forward is a negotiated settlement with Iran giving up any aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon.”
The UK has sent air defence destroyer HMS Dragon to help defend Cyprus from drones and missiles but the vessel has not yet arrived in the eastern Mediterranean.
The destroyer was seen leaving Gibraltar overnight.
As strikes continued across the Middle East, Israel claimed it had killed Iranian intelligence minister Esmail Khatib.
It comes after Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force were reportedly killed on Tuesday.
Iran attacked Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich eastern province as well as targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates today.