Home heating oil in Northern Ireland has fallen again and is now the lowest it has been since last summer

The average cost of 500 litres of oil last week fell to £311 and 900 litres dropped to £551, according to the NI Consumer Council. This compares to a low last summer of around £280 for 500ltrs and £495 for 900ltrs.

This is despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and the more recent war in the Middle East, and brings oil prices down to just over 60p a litre – which is almost 40% lower than the highs seen after the Russian invasion in February 2022.

At the beginning of May, the News Letter reported on how oil had already this year dropped from post invasion highs of more than £1 a litre to closer to 65p a litre (read Ben Lowry’s analysis then). Last summer oil was 55p a litre from May to July, before it began to climb up towards 80p a litre.

Oil is surprisingly cheap given the two ongoing wars in regions that influence energy supplies. On February 17 2022, prior to President Putin launching war, oil was actually more than it is now in NI – 500 ltrs cost £317 on average and 900 ltrs cost £551.

Most households in Northern Ireland are heated by oil, unlike the rest of the UK. Prices here are lower than they were a decade ago. In May 2014, it cost almost around £480 to purchase 900 ltrs of oil, which in today’s money is equivalent to about £640.

Two years prior to that, in May 2012, 900 litres of oil was priced on average about £560 which is the same as a hefty £770 now after inflation is taken into account.

Earlier this month, David Blevings of the NI Oil Federation said oil prices had fallen in the hope of progress in the Gaza peace talks “in the Middle east”.