Home heating oil drops to 84p per litre three months on from Iran war beginning - petrol and diesel prices also sinking
The cost of home heating oil is continuing to fall week-on-week, some three months after the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran.
Petrol and diesel have also dropped in the past seven days, though not as markedly.
Now the price of bulk-bought home heating oil averages at about 84p per litre, down from about 88ppl a week earlier, and well below its recent high of about £1.21 in April.
This is based on figures from the Consumer Council, a public body which surveys the average cost of fuel across Northern Ireland on a weekly basis.
We now have exactly three months of data from the Consumer Council since the attack on Iran.
Here are its figures for the average cost of home heating oil in Northern Ireland as of today:
● 300 litres: £262.83, or about 88ppl (down by 4.8% in the last week)
● 500 litres: £424.62, or about 85ppl (down by 5%)
● 900 litres: £754.15 or about 84ppl (down by 5.1%).
The cheapest price the Consumer Council found for a 500 litre load this week was £405 at a retailer operating in Mid Ulster and Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon.
The most expensive 500 litres that the Consumer Council found was £446.25 at a retailer operating in Mid Ulster, Mid and East Antrim, and Causeway Coast and Glens.
On February 26, the last survey date before the US bombed Iran, the average price of 500 litres had been £307.38.
Turning to the cost at the pumps, diesel is now at 172.2ppl (down by 1.1% on the week before) and petrol is at 151.9ppl (down by 1.2%).
Both had peaked in mid-April, at 188.1ppl for diesel and 154ppl for petrol.
Just before the war began, diesel had been 132.6ppl and petrol had been 124.8ppl.
As ever, there are big regional differences.
The Consumer Council samples prices in 28 different towns and cities, and the cheapest price that it found this week was 149.7ppl at stations in Bangor, Coleraine, Belfast, and Omagh.
The most expensive petrol was 159.9ppl at stations in Carrickfergus, Magherafelt, and Newry.
As for diesel, the cheapest that it found was at 163.9ppl at a station in Strabane, while the most expensive was 177.9ppl at stations in Magherafelt and Enniskillen.
The website Boilerjuice.com says that the average price for red diesel in NI now is 94.12ppl (exluding VAT).
It had peaked at 129.95ppl in early March.
Meanwhile in the Middle East, Hezbollah has refused to agree a ceasefire with Israel while it continues to occupy roughly one-fifth of Lebanon.
The ongoing fighting in Lebanon threatens efforts to end the Iran war and re-open the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas.
“Supporting the resistance in Lebanon is the duty of all of us, and eliminating Israel from the region is an achievable goal for Muslims,” Esmail Qaani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies.
Before the war, around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, as well as large shipments of fertiliser and other goods, passed through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.