Customers can expect much more stable prices at the pumps and for home heating oil across Northern Ireland this year, one local provider has said.
2022 saw significant price rises for people heating their homes and filling their cars, with diesel hitting £2 per litre in some places while home heating oil also rocketed in price.
The ongoing war in Ukraine has been given as the main driver of the inflated costs, and while there still appears no end in sight to the conflict, Garry Jennings says many supply issues have now been rectified.
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Garry, who owns Jennings Fuels in Kesh in Co Fermanagh, says the recent cold snap left many worrying about home heating oil costs.
“Prices have stabilised well in recent times, while they aren’t as low as they were they don’t seem to be as volatile anyway,” Garry said.
“While they are still fairly high, it seems to be levelling out and that’s better than not knowing what’s happening at all.
“The hope is that they fall back a wee bit in the short term at least. It’s well down now but there were fears that we had to cap fuel supplies because demand was more than supply during the cold weather.
“It’s different now because people seem to be doing less panic buying than what they did last year which helps keep our supplies.
“Oil dropped to record levels during the pandemic and I can’t see it ever going that low again.”
Diesel prices at the pump have fallen back from touching £2 per litre, but many are still struggling to fill their cars at current prices.
“It’s a far cry from where it was,” Garry said. “But we were expecting a major shortage of diesel at Christmas and that never happened thankfully.
“I’m hoping that we’re passed the worst of it at this stage, if the war in Ukraine settles down we will hopefully be able to get back to what looks like more normal prices.
“All energy costs are putting a big strain on people’s budgets at the minute, it has been a tough winter for people.”
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