Warning of farm pressures as red diesel up by over 60% in Northern Ireland due to Iran war

The cost of the fuel is now over 116p per litre in parts of Northern Ireland (excluding VAT), with the rise being much steeper than that for regular road fuel.

Meanwhile farmers are also being advised to be wary of home fuel theft as the price of heating oil continues to ride high.

It comes as tension escalated between the UK and Iran over the USA’s use of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to strike Iran, as well as the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

One consequence of the war has been that it has pushed the price of crude oil up by about 57%, with all the refined products on which it is based also rising.

The website BoilerJuice.co.uk, based in Cambridgeshire, has a tracker which keeps tabs on the price of red diesel in Northern Ireland.

It was listing the average price as 116.05p per litre today, excluding VAT – up 3.32p on the day before, but down from a high of 129.95p on March 7.

Before the hostilities in Iran began it was at 72.03p, meaning it is now 61% more expensive.

The National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw said that echoed the picture in Great Britain, adding: “If these cost pressures persist, which span the whole food supply chain, it could lead to further food price inflation – a situation we’ve already seen play out with the Russian invasion of Ukraine which drove an ongoing cost-of-living crisis here.

“This is something the government needs to take very seriously.”

The News Letter had reported during the week on the surging cost of fuel at the pumps for regular motorists.

According to the Consumer Council’s weekly survey across 28 towns and cities in Northern Ireland, the average price of a litre of petrol as of Thursday was 138.3p – 10.8% higher than before the Iran war.

The average price of diesel was 158.1p – up 19.2% on the start of the war.

This masks regional differences; at some individual stations, diesel is now up to about 170 pence per litre.

Meanwhile the cost of filling up a tank with 500 litres of home heating oil now stands at an average of £593.03 – up 92.9% on the start of the war – though it has been basically steady all week.

Hannah Binns, rural affairs specialist at farm insurer NFU Mutual, said: “Thieves steal whatever they can get their hands on and sell on for a profit, and high diesel and heating oil prices often trigger an increase in thefts from farm fuel tanks.”

The News Letter tracks the price of six suppliers of home heating oil daily: one in each county.

Here is the price each was offering for 500 litres as of Friday afternoon.

Next to it is whether the daily price has changed (plus the price a week earlier in brackets):

• Firm in north Down: £621, unchanged from Thursday (£621 a week ago)

• Firm in north Armagh: £580, up from £562 on Thursday (£567)

• Firm in mid-Antrim: £590.10, unchanged (£615.83)

• Firm in south Tyrone: £594.56, unchanged (£599.81)

• Firm in Londonderry city: £599, unchanged (£599)

• Firm in west Fermanagh: £599, unchanged (£599)