Diesel Shortage

[automaticearth2]

The USGS seems to think there might be a few hundred million barrels available. Better than nothing?

It's mostly located in the North, rather than the Midlands, but when did the Yanks know anything about UK Geography ?
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3028/fs20183028.pdf

Anyway, it's shale oil and shale gas, which are currently off the table in this country...

Fracking is very unlikely to come back in the UK, IMO.

Even if it did come back, and we fracked this oil/gas, there is no guarantee that we'd see any of it. It will just go to the highest bidder. Good news for the frackers, not so good news for us......

[Mark]

Fracking is very unlikely to come back in the UK, IMO.

I hope you're right...., but there have been some recent developments that haven't got much airtime.....

Cuadrilla given extra year to evaluate fracking wells:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60944314

Energy giant Ineos asks to build fracking test site:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61060721

[kenneal - lagger]

.......

As many as 10 oil refineries were initially targeted on Friday but by Monday only the Esso West London Oil Terminal near Heathrow Airport was still being blocked, an Esso spokesman said."[/i]

I didn't realise the UK had so many refineries, including one near Heathrow.

There isn't a refinery near Heathrow. It's a distribution terminal fed by a pipe line from the ESSO Fawley refinery and probably others as well.

[kenneal - lagger]

.....................
Even if it did come back, and we fracked this oil/gas, there is no guarantee that we'd see any of it. It will just go to the highest bidder. Good news for the frackers, not so good news for us......

If we did have any new fracked oil and gas it would probably just displace imports as the cost of local fuel would be cheaper than transported fuel although it would be sold to us at world market rates. The difference would be pocketed by the oil company as excessive profits. A windfall tax, anyone?

[adam2]

All this talk of more drilling for oil, or fracking, in order to "relieve shortages" in the UK is rather missing the point.

There is NO general or international shortage of diesel fuel. A number of UK filling stations are out of diesel fuel, as a result of distribution problems.
These are the result of staff shortages and protests. How will more more drilling help remove the protesters, or help to engage more tanker drivers ?

Provided that a free market is allowed to prevail, then I doubt that we will EVER see widespread physical shortages. As supplies decline, then prices tend to rise, and this EITHER brings more fuel to the market, OR prices rise further until demand reduces to match the available supply.

Some countries have faced petrol and diesel shortages for DECADES, but these are places without a free market. Usually the government keeps price low to placate the populace. This increases demand and leads to shortages.

Localised or short term shortages due to industrial disputes, extreme weather, wars, industrial accidents, or protests can occur at any time.

[Potemkin Villager]

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/3561 ... r-25-april

"Stop Oil’s campaign to disrupt the UK’s petrol and diesel supplies started on 1 April, and continued until Easter. Following a spate of petrol station closures and ongoing reports of supply problems at filling stations around the country, the group said yesterday it would give the government a week to respond to its demands - a deadline that runs out on 25 April.

While the government and fuel distributors have previously attempted to keep a lid on the scale of problems, in a bid to prevent panic buying of the sort we’ve seen before, there’s no doubt the latest protests have caused significant disruption to drivers. At one point in April it was being reported that one-in-three filling stations had run dry, and any future escalation will likely seek to create even more disruption for drivers and wider society."