Heating oil bills soar 150% in two years

By Smyth Harper

THE price of home heating oil has reached a record high, with some providers charging more than #200 for a fill-up, it emerged today.

A snap survey on oil prices by the Belfast Telegraph has revealed that householders across the province were paying an average of #197 for 900 litres of home heating fuel.

The bad news for customers is that prices are set to get even higher.

Costs ranged from #208 for 900 litres from Fuel Services in Belfast to #193 for a similar fill-up from Hyland in Dundonald.

At this time in 1998, 900 litres could be bought for only #83 - representing an increase of more than 150% over two years.

David Blevings of the Northern Ireland Oil Promotion Federation said the new rises were unfortunate but unavoidable.

He said: "It is bad news for distributors and consumers. The distributors have held off as much as possible and cut their margins right down to the bone.

"But they have been left with no choice but to raise prices because of the high cost of crude oil.

"It is unfortunate and bad timing as winter comes in."Many customers who have been using oil have been tempted to other forms of heating such as gas.

Phoenix Natural Gas said the company had received a large increase in the number of inquiries from domestic fuel users to convert to gas.

"We put the number of calls down to the increasing awareness of the availability of natural gas and to the recent increases in the price of oil," said Richard Rodgers, business development director.

But Mr Blevings claimed that oil was still good value and said that Phoenix had recently raised its prices.

"The price of gas follows the price of oil very closely and, despite the peaks and troughs of the oil market, oil is still the cheapest in its field," he insisted.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/today/aug25/News/bfront.ncml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 25, 2000