Strike on at Grangemouth

[Vortex]

Oil Refinery For sale - one owner, hardly used - simply needs a bit of a tidy up.

Just ?3125 or near offer.

Buyer collects.

[Andy Hunt]

The government has ordered that workers from the following industries and services are eligible for priority access to fuel which tankers have been delivering to 298 petrol stations across the country.

Emergency services
Armed forces
Health and social workers
Food industry
Agriculture, veterinary and animal welfare
Essential workers at nuclear sites
Water, sewerage and drainage
Fuel and energy suppliers
Public transport
Licensed taxis
Coastguards and lifeboat crews
Airport and airline workers
Postal, media, telecommunications
Central and local government workers
Essential financial services staff including those involved in the delivery of cash and cheques
Prison staff
Refuse collection and industrial waste
Funeral services
Special schools and colleges for the disabled
Essential foreign diplomatic workers

Even with these it will be 'badged vehicles', i.e. if you work for a prison for example, it's unlikely you will be given priority unless you are actually driving a prison vehicle with the badge on it. I don't think this list applies to people using private vehicles to actually get to work in these industries, AFAIK.

[syberberg]

The government has ordered that workers from the following industries and services are eligible for priority access to fuel which tankers have been delivering to 298 petrol stations across the country.

Emergency services
Armed forces
Health and social workers
Food industry
Agriculture, veterinary and animal welfare
Essential workers at nuclear sites
Water, sewerage and drainage
Fuel and energy suppliers
Public transport
Licensed taxis
Coastguards and lifeboat crews
Airport and airline workers
Postal, media, telecommunications
Central and local government workers
Essential financial services staff including those involved in the delivery of cash and cheques
Prison staff
Refuse collection and industrial waste
Funeral services
Special schools and colleges for the disabled
Essential foreign diplomatic workers

Even with these it will be 'badged vehicles', i.e. if you work for a prison for example, it's unlikely you will be given priority unless you are actually driving a prison vehicle with the badge on it. I don't think this list applies to people using private vehicles to actually get to work in these industries, AFAIK.

Following on from that (remember is now if you're paranoid or not, but if you're paranoid enough ) how long before we need an iris/retina scan to make the fuel pump work?

[Vortex]

In the last effort, I saw a nurse use her ID to fill her boyfriend's car .... irritating, especially as the police told me to move on as 'this is a filling station for priority users only'.

[stumuz]

In the last effort, I saw a nurse use her ID to fill her boyfriend's car .... irritating, especially as the police told me to move on as 'this is a filling station for priority users only'.

My Aunty drove from the midlands for a weekend, flashed the nursey ID and filled up no problem.

That was a real eye opener, it will not happen to me again. The Defender can run on 90% central heating oil and 10% veg.

[Andy Hunt]

Ineos Refinery Strike May Have `Serious Consequences' (Update3)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 4&refer=uk

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks warned of ``serious consequences'' for Britain if a threatened strike at Scotland's only oil refinery halts production by the end of the week.

``The last thing the public wants is fuel shortages,'' with prices at record highs, Wicks said by telephone today from Rome, where he's attending the International Energy Forum.

The minister spoke after Ineos Group Holdings Plc, owner of the Grangemouth refinery, said Scotland may suffer fuel cuts as early as April 25 because of a walkout by members of the Unite trade union over plans to change the company's pension program.

``This is an industrial dispute about pensions between the union and the company,'' Wicks said. ``It is a matter for those two parties to resolve as soon as possible. There is nothing directly government can do.''

The strike may cause ``fuel chaos'' for ``weeks on end,'' Tom Crotty, the plant's chief executive officer, said in today's statement.

[Mitch]

Right, think I may be getting it now - Grangemouth sorts out 10 % of the fuel and 30% of our gas. The gas is from the North Sea - not imports. Our refinery capacity is running at absolute peak output - 10% shut down = 10% reduction in total fuel supply - yes, SERIOUS when you can't make up the shortfall from other refineries. Norwegian bloke going on about how we are at the bottom of the pile, and will only get some gas if there's a therm or two going spare, but don't count on it, was probably in response to U.K. asking for a "temporary" increase to cover the 30% loss via Grangemouth. Methinks the gas problem will have much more dire consequences than the "fuel shortage". Also think there may be something way bigger than a pension strike going on, if this all actually happens - surely BOE would've already stepped in to "garuntee" the pensions or something, rather than allow this to go down?

[syberberg]

Right, think I may be getting it now - Grangemouth sorts out 10 % of the fuel and 30% of our gas. The gas is from the North Sea - not imports. Our refinery capacity is running at absolute peak output - 10% shut down = 10% reduction in total fuel supply - yes, SERIOUS when you can't make up the shortfall from other refineries. Norwegian bloke going on about how we are at the bottom of the pile, and will only get some gas if there's a therm or two going spare, but don't count on it, was probably in response to U.K. asking for a "temporary" increase to cover the 30% loss via Grangemouth. Methinks the gas problem will have much more dire consequences than the "fuel shortage". Also think there may be something way bigger than a pension strike going on, if this all actually happens - surely BOE would've already stepped in to "garuntee" the pensions or something, rather than allow this to go down?

[tinfoil hat on] It's a trial run by TPTB to see how The System will cope and what the general public will do. Obvious, innit? [tinfoil hat off]

[Andy Hunt]

Right, think I may be getting it now - Grangemouth sorts out 10 % of the fuel and 30% of our gas. The gas is from the North Sea - not imports. Our refinery capacity is running at absolute peak output - 10% shut down = 10% reduction in total fuel supply - yes, SERIOUS when you can't make up the shortfall from other refineries. Norwegian bloke going on about how we are at the bottom of the pile, and will only get some gas if there's a therm or two going spare, but don't count on it, was probably in response to U.K. asking for a "temporary" increase to cover the 30% loss via Grangemouth. Methinks the gas problem will have much more dire consequences than the "fuel shortage". Also think there may be something way bigger than a pension strike going on, if this all actually happens - surely BOE would've already stepped in to "garuntee" the pensions or something, rather than allow this to go down?

[tinfoil hat on] It's a trial run by TPTB to see how The System will cope and what the general public will do. Obvious, innit? [tinfoil hat off]

Stranger things have happened . . .

[syberberg]

Right, think I may be getting it now - Grangemouth sorts out 10 % of the fuel and 30% of our gas. The gas is from the North Sea - not imports. Our refinery capacity is running at absolute peak output - 10% shut down = 10% reduction in total fuel supply - yes, SERIOUS when you can't make up the shortfall from other refineries. Norwegian bloke going on about how we are at the bottom of the pile, and will only get some gas if there's a therm or two going spare, but don't count on it, was probably in response to U.K. asking for a "temporary" increase to cover the 30% loss via Grangemouth. Methinks the gas problem will have much more dire consequences than the "fuel shortage". Also think there may be something way bigger than a pension strike going on, if this all actually happens - surely BOE would've already stepped in to "garuntee" the pensions or something, rather than allow this to go down?

[tinfoil hat on] It's a trial run by TPTB to see how The System will cope and what the general public will do. Obvious, innit? [tinfoil hat off]

Stranger things have happened . . .

...at sea.

[SunnyJim]

A sort of enforced wake up call? Surely not? That would have to mean TPTB have a plan! Or are thinking about something more than the bloody credit crunch?

I hope you're right though. It would certainly focus a few minds would it not? Petrol rationing, a few hours of blackouts.... would certainly be an awakener..... and a good rehersal for us.

[Mitch]

Oh, you mean everything will be O.K. when we go back to normal at ?5.00 a litre and electric/gas prices increase 300% in one go. No-one will complain, they will have had a taste of what will happen if they do!

[SunnyJim]

Good point Mitch.

This is bound to be good for the refinary isn't it? Fuel prices shoot up, and I bet they won't come down as much. Refinary margins are pretty tight at the moment aren't they? So striking for a month will definately help there.

Who know's what's going on eh?

[Mitch]

Now what?????

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil producer, stopped production at its J-Block oil and gas fields in the U.K.'s North Sea on an "operational problem.''

The fields were shut down at about 5 p.m. London time yesterday, spokeswoman Sandra Ross said today. The company is working to get the fields back on line, she said, without providing more details.

Grief!!!

Surely if Grangemouth can't take it, they can put it on the market???

[SunnyJim]

It will be worth more when Grangemouth comes back online....