Donegal home heating oil prices rocket to highest price in years, amid war in Iran

Householders across Inishowen and Donegal are feeling the pinch big time this week, as oil prices continue to rocket amid the early fallout from the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Brent crude, the global benchmark oil price, has jumped sharply amid fears that instability in the Gulf region and the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s crude flows, could disrupt supplies.

Here in Donegal, there has been a whopping 40 per cent increase in the price of home heating oil since the weekend, with the price of 500 litres of kerosene jumping from €500 on Sunday night to €699 by Tuesday morning, the biggest rise in years.

Local oil companies have been inundated with orders from homeowners desperate to fill up their tanks before the price goes up even higher.

The current surge amid global turmoil is very much a case of recent history repeating itself. Prices at the Donegal petrol pumps hit a record €2 per litre four years ago, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while 500 litres of home heating oil had surged past €800 by mid-March 2022.

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Irish Government Ministers have said they are monitoring developments closely this week, and some Ministers have suggested that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should investigate any unjustified oil hikes.

But with no end to Trump and Netanyahu’s war in sight, it may well be a case of things getting worse before they get better on the oil front – a scary prospect for households already struggling with energy bills.