Drivers' despondency deepens as pump prices jump - with diesel now averaging almost £1.70 per litre
Pump prices are continuing to get worse by the week according to the latest survey of Northern Ireland’s forecourts – though there’s also some mild relief for heating oil customers.
The Consumer Council’s weekly official average of diesel and petrol across 28 towns and cities in the province yesterday showed that the price of the former is now averaging 169.7p per litre, and the latter is 144.6p per litre.
This time last week, diesel stood at 158.1ppl, and petrol at 138.3ppl.
Before the US/Israeli attack on Iran, diesel had been 132.6ppl and petrol was 124.8ppl.
In other words, diesel jumped by 7.3% in a week and 27.9% since hostilities started.
Petrol meanwhile is up 4.5% over the past week, and 15.8% since war began.
These averages mask the regional peaks and troughs though; for example, the most expensive diesel the Consumer Council found was 189.9ppl (in Enniskillen), whilst the priciest petrol was 157.9ppl (in Magherafelt).
The cheapest diesel it could find was 155.9ppl (in both Lisburn and Belfast) and the lowest petrol price was 138.7ppl (in both Coleraine and Portadown).
The website BoilerJuice.com is showing the average price of red diesel in the province to be 115.04ppl – 2.31p more than a week earlier, and 43.01p more than before the war began.
If there is a glimmer of light for consumers in Northern Ireland, it is that the sky-high cost of home heating oil is now very slightly down.
However, it how now been sitting at over £1 per litre for three straight weeks.
By contrast, whenever Russia invaded Ukraine and the price spiked, it only stayed above £1 per litre for one week.
These are the average prices this week (with last week’s in brackets):
300 litres: £363.21 (down from £374.12, or by 3%)
500 litres: £577.72 (down from £595.03, or by 2.9%)
900 litres: £1,021.67 (down from £1,043.82, or by 2.1%)
However, these numbers are still vastly higher than they were a month ago.
The price of 300 litres is now 79.7% higher than before the war began, 500 litres is up by 87.9%, and 900 litres is up by 90.3%.
The News Letter’s own survey of six fuel firms (one for each county) shows the price for 500 litres as of yesterday to be:
North Down firm: £535.70 (down from £547.70 a day earlier)
North Armagh firm: £543.99 (down from £555 a day earlier)
Mid-Antrim firm: £590.10 (same)
South Tyrone firm: £569.89 (up from £569.88 a day earlier)
Londonderry city firm: £599 (same)
West Fermanagh firm: £599 (same)
According to the Financial Times, a barrel of Brent Crude (the raw material for all the above products) was sitting at around $108 yesterday, up from about $100 on Monday.
Meanwhile diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire appeared to be faltering, as Israel said it had killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s navy, the key official overseeing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.