Rocketing heating oil prices could force desperate residents to buy off the black market

Struggling households could turn to the black market to heat up their homes if oil prices continue to rocket.

Heating oil is one of the main commodities used by Derry residents to warm up their homes during the winter months.

However, prices to restock residential oil tanks have dramatically risen with heating oil in a number of cases being sold at double the price that it could have been bought at last month.

Talk is rife of oil rationing being implemented in Derry given that some suppliers in neighbouring Co. Donegal are doing just that.

Cllr Emmet Doyle of Aontú, who represents the Ballyarnett ward, stated that if the situation worsened, people who are already struggling to make ends meet may well be desperate enough to turn to illegal means of acquiring heating oil at a more sensible price.

He said: “I've no doubt (that this could happen) and I wouldn't condemn people for doing that.

“If you're a single parent, you are going to do anything to make sure that your kids are looked after.

“If the big companies are unable to supply you in a way that you can afford, people are going to do what people have done for generations – to find other ways of getting oil to heat their homes.

“When it comes down to it, and when you put that into the context of these big companies making profits off the back of misery in some cases, you can hardly blame ordinary people for trying any means possible to try and heat their homes.

“The rationing of oil in Derry wouldn't necessarily surprise me. We're still in the winter, more or less, in terms of temperatures.

“People are at their wit's end at the moment in many cases so I hope it doesn't happen but at the end of the day, people are going to try and get their hands on fuel any way they can.”

Oil rationing may well be an option given, as Cllr Doyle says, suppliers are finding it hard to get hold of oil to sell in the first place.

He added: “It's phenomenal. People, at this stage, are generally unable to buy oil at all. It's not even just a problem with the price, there are some small companies in the city who have stopped taking online orders.

“Some of those small companies have had to turn away customers because their own suppliers are unable to serve them.

“There seems to be a supply-chain issue – not only is it about the cost, there is trouble trying to get your hands on it at the minute.”

Many energy companies have cited the current Russia-Ukraine war with the conflict said to be limiting supplies of oil and gas from Eastern Europe.

Of that excuse, Cllr Doyle said: “There are obviously some smaller companies that are being badly affected (by the Russia-Ukraine war) but the multi-million pound companies are making a profit – it's as plain and simple as that.

“They are going to take the opportunity of what's happening to the market at the moment to make more of a profit – that's where people like myself and the Council need to step in and let them know that we are not going to allow consumers to be bullied.”

Cllr Doyle has also been busy in trying to help residents who have open-fire wood-burners get free access to firewood.

He continued: “I purchased three and a quarter tonnes worth of firewood with some distribution partners such as the Carnhill Resource Centre.

“We've been giving that out for free to people because there are still lots of people in the city who have oil and an open-fire wood-burner. The demand, even for that, has been phenomenal.

“We only started this on Monday with seven pallets and yesterday, three pallets were gone. That's almost two hundred bags.”