Strike on at Grangemouth

[Mitch]

Ah, good point Jim.

[fifthcolumn]

[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]

Good one or...
<puts tinfoil hat on>
It's to give the yanks extra in the run up so mccain gets elected
</puts tinfoil hat on>
scratchs head

or
<puts tinfoil hat back on>
They're about to bomb iran and are cutting supplies to "useless" areas so that the war machine has ample supplies
</takes tinfoil hat back off>

[syberberg]

[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]

Good one or...
<puts tinfoil hat on>
It's to give the yanks extra in the run up so mccain gets elected
</puts tinfoil hat on>
scratchs head

or
<puts tinfoil hat back on>
They're about to bomb iran and are cutting supplies to "useless" areas so that the war machine has ample supplies
</takes tinfoil hat back off>

Nice.

Ooh, hang on,

[tinfoil hat back on] A strike and shut down of an oil refinery that supplies 10% of the UK that will cause petrol to be even more expensive in the same month that the duty on petrol has gone up? Hmmmm, coincidence? I think not.[tinfoil hat off again]

[SunnyJim]

<tin hat>
How about all these speculators in the commodity markets would have had to actually start taking delivery of all this oil they've been buying if not for closures <tin hat off>

[fifthcolumn]

Here are the refineries in the UK.
Scotland appears to have two. What is it that Nynas does exactly that it can't produce more?

Also looks like the scaremongering that the North of England will be affected is crap. There's a refinery down the road from newcastle which should be capable of supplying the north. There are two near manchester.
So the north of england is probably ok except for raids by blue skinned scots coming down with white vans and jerry cans.

[fifthcolumn]

Fuel distribution via uk refineries

[RevdTess]

Here are the refineries in the UK.
Scotland appears to have two. What is it that Nynas does exactly that it can't produce more?

The Nynas Dundee refinery is one tenth the size of Grangemouth. Dont expect any miracles from them.

[RevdTess]

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???

Completely different oil field. The J-Block is part of the Ekofisk field, nothing to do with the Forties pipe that goes to Grangemouth.

[Mitch]

Thanks Tess,

I dunno if that's more scary or not. Where does J-Block's output go?
Is it "U.K.'s North Sea", as the newspaper article said, or some-one else's?
Is it even important, or just too small to really count?

[RevdTess]

Thanks Tess,

I dunno if that's more scary or not. Where does J-Block's output go?
Is it "U.K.'s North Sea", as the newspaper article said, or some-one else's?
Is it even important, or just too small to really count?

The Ekofisk blend gets piped into Teeside actually, even though it's technically on the Norwegian side of the nsea.
J-Block produces around 25,000 barrels per day, whereas the Forties stream (that might be closed if Grangemouth goes down) produces 650kbd. Big difference really.

[YossarianUK]

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.

Last time round (the fuel protests) it did cover those who worked there - I'm on the list and I still have my authorisation letter. If we took our letter to a designated station, we could fill up. It was very quickly arranged last time, they might have something more thought through this time round, if it comes to it.

[Andy Hunt]

Here are the refineries in the UK.
Scotland appears to have two. What is it that Nynas does exactly that it can't produce more?

Also looks like the scaremongering that the North of England will be affected is crap. There's a refinery down the road from newcastle which should be capable of supplying the north. There are two near manchester.
So the north of england is probably ok except for raids by blue skinned scots coming down with white vans and jerry cans.

I think the point is that refineries further South will have to send some of their produce to Scotland to prevent societal collapse, which will mean shortages for us further South.

It doesn't mean no petrol, it just means only 90% of what we need, with the shortages distributed evenly around the UK, presumably.

If Mr Wicks says it will cause chaos, then I suspect it may well.

[adam2]

Despite being a doomer at heart, I still suspect that a last minute deal will be done and that the strike will be called off.

(still did a bit of panic buying though just in case)

[Andy Hunt]

(still did a bit of panic buying though just in case)

I am off out to Halfrauds in a bit to get a couple more jerry cans, and then the petrol station!!

[Aurora]

Halfrauds

Jerry cans. Have you seen these?