Cost of home heating oil falls for third consecutive week while gap between petrol and diesel prices hits record high

The average cost of 900 litres of home heating oil in Northern Ireland is now £864.41, three weeks ago it had been £954.05. According to the Consumer Council, the cheapest oil is in Lisburn and Castlereagh at £856.18 for 900 litres while the dearest is Newry, Mourne and Down at £874.24.

The average cost of petrol and diesel in the Province has also fallen, though the gap between the two has reached an all time high.

A litre of petrol costs on average 160.6p in NI while diesel comes in at 176.7p - a gap of 16 pence.

In Strabane and Lisburn a litre of petrol was found to be as low as 152.9p.

The cheapest diesel was 169.9p in Coleraine.

Analysis of Government figures (for the UK) by the PA news agency and the RAC Foundation found the average price of a litre of diesel is nearly 17p more expensive than petrol.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said the difference is mainly due to an increase in the amount of diesel being used for heating and power generation in continental Europe because Russia has cut gas exports.

Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show average pump prices for a litre of fuel at the beginning of the week were 180.3p for diesel and 163.8p for petrol.

The price difference is the largest in records dating back to June 2003. Diesel has only cost around 5p per litre more than petrol on average since then.

Mr Gooding said: “The bad news for UK diesel drivers – and the diesel-truck-dependent UK freight industry – is that, with winter only just starting and the war in Ukraine showing no sign of ending, the sizeable gap between diesel and petrol pump prices is likely to continue for several months to come even if the cost of oil drops.”