'Our heating oil's doubled in price in two weeks'

A family which relies on oil to heat their rural home have said its price has doubled in the two weeks following the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Unemployed accountant Lawrence Salvoni said he was also very worried about the security of supplies to his home in Northwich, Cheshire.

The father-of-two said he regretted the decision he made on the morning after Iran was first attacked, when he was told the price of a litre of heating oil had gone up from 57p to 87p.

"Originally we thought 'Well, that seems expensive, let's sit tight for five minutes and see what happens'," he said. "Big mistake, because when we actually got to place the order on the Tuesday, it had gone to 117p per litre."

Salvoni said: "We tried to order 1,000 litres but our supplier essentially said 'we can't deliver that much oil to you, the most we can send you is 500'. It was a relief to obviously get some.

"In the last two weeks we've spent nearly £1,400, which is more than double what we paid the last time we put that much oil in the tank less than 12 months ago."

He added: "We're in the fortunate position that although I don't work at the moment, my wife does. So, short-term budgeting is still relatively - I wouldn't say easy - but it's certainly straightforward for us.

"The problem we have is having to buy that much oil in one go. Ordinarily 1,000 litres would probably last six months or so."

He said in the longer term he fears that a prolonged conflict could affect security of supply.

"It's not as though we could switch to an alternative source," Salvoni explained.

When the family moved into their home 11 years ago it was only configured to use oil for heating since there were no gas mains nearby.

A plan to create gas supply infrastructure in the area a few years ago did not materialise, he said.

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