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strikes at the grangemouth oil refinery are imminent and fears over a possible fuel shortage have sparked panic buying in scotland and northern england. a 2 day strike is planned next week and already some filling stations have run out. people are panicking so much that they're out filling up their cars and even petrol cans!! anyone else seen the bloody queues at the filling stations? i had to wait over half an hour tonight to get to a pump. it's pretty scary

It would be scary, unknown to a few generations....only the older people would be able to understand and deal with the panic, the ones who had went through the depression.....

it's even more scary cos some filling stations are profiteering. one was apparently charging £1.45 (approx $2.50) for a litre of diesel. petrol has already rocketed to new highs and the effect is devastating. prices in supermarkets are soaring because of the extra expense. just how much more can the british public take???

bloody hell... unleaded is still £1.09 here at the moment.

Stock up on rice, corn and ethanol too........ Earth on the Brink.

Hey, we've got dibs on Iraq. You guys can take Iran's oil.

apparently aberdeen (where i live) is the oil capitol of europe............yet we still don't have enough bloody petrol to fill our cars!!!!

Thats because the oil is too good for being made into petrol,its more suitable for machine oil which is why the US Government offered to buy all of it when the Shell field was opened up.

Theres enough oil to run american industry for an extended period, and all of it was offered to be purchased at market rates.

I remember Armand Hammer and Maggie Thatcher slipping up on an oil rig and she did her normal over quoting and i saw what she said and actually Armand kept his mouth shut and got all the free publicity he wanted without shelling out a penny.

That said the refinery supplies scotland, northern england and even Ireland and is being closed for "Security Reasons".

Watch how the public react, i can see the cues at the pumps now when theres no need.

alex salmond has said there's enough petrol in reserve to last 70 days. if the panic buying keeps up it'll all be gone within a week. people are already scrambling around using petrol to find petrol

Fill up every container you have and sell it a few weeks later. You'll be rich!

i'd also be VULNERABLE!!!

That's the Great British public for you and people will profiteer from it too.

The industry has plenty of time to ensure supply throughout the country, just as long as people don't panic buy.


Problem is people just see Shortage, their brain goes out the window and the rest isnt though much about.Generally people are pretty thick and they need to be protected from themselves.

That's much like around here when we get blizzard warnings in the winter. People who you know NEVER eat bread or don't drink milk will go buy 10 loaves of bread and 5 gallons of milk~~~for no reason. Humans are interesting ~~~


However, stock up on that rice, here in the states we've got an 80 lb limit at some stores. (80 lbs of cooked rice would fill up your bathroom, most likely.

no we had one in the 70s pretty much the same they would only let us get so many gal of gas

I'd love to see gas rationed. I'd come out like a bandit

Indy, there's a reason for that, those people are wghat they refer to as "morons".

Can you imagine what or how long it will take to eat 80lbs of rice? Christ i like a curry but i dont think i will be able to eat that much in a year.

Strike refinery shutdown complete
The shutdown of the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth in central Scotland is complete, the company have said.

The 1,700-acre plant is being closed in preparation for a two-day strike by staff over pension changes, which is due to start on Sunday.

The process to shut the plant, which is Scotland's main fuel supplier, began on Monday.

It is the first time the plant, which processes 210,000 barrels of oil a day, has been completely shut down.

Ineos said it could take up to three weeks for the plant to get back up to 100% production capacity following the shutdown.

Despite the plant's closure, the BBC understands last minute talks aimed at averting the strike are still continuing.

Oil giant BP has said that if the strike goes ahead, it will have to close down the Forties oil pipeline.

The pipelink links North Sea oil production with a plant at Kinneil near Grangemouth and delivers 30% of the UK's daily oil output.

From the BBC World News Service

latest headline

BP begins Forties oil pipeline shutdown

Oil climbs on UK pipeline fears

The pipeline relies on power from the Grangemouth refinery

Oil prices headed toward $117 a barrel as oil giant BP prepared to shut down a key North Sea pipeline and a strike at Exxon in Nigeria disrupted production.

BP's Forties pipeline, which provides a third of the UK's daily oil output, will close if a two-day strike by refinery workers goes ahead.

US sweet, light crude rose 86 cents to $116.92 a barrel, while London's Brent crude climbed $1.14 to $115.48.

Rebels in Nigeria also claimed another attack on a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has repeatedly tried to sabotage Shell's production in recent weeks.

A strike by workers at Exxon Mobil, Nigeria's biggest foreign oil producer, has further disrupted production in the African country. It said it had been forced to halt its output of crude oil, estimated at 200,000 barrels per day.

Strike planned

In the UK, workers at the Grangemouth plant are due to take part in a two-day strike from Sunday in a row over pensions.

FORTIES OIL PIPELINE

The Forties pipeline system (FPS) carries crude oil from the Forties oil fields in the North Sea
After making landfall at Cruden Bay the oil travels to the Kinneil terminal at Grangemouth
At Kinneil it is stabilised and gas processing takes place
The Kinneil terminal uses electricity and steam from the nearby Grangemouth refinery to operate


Strike to close key oil pipeline

The BP-run pipeline from the Forties oil fields in the North Sea, relies on steam and electricity from the Ineos refinery at Grangemouth in central Scotland.

A BP spokesman said that closing Grangemouth would cause up to 70 platforms in the North Sea to either shut down or reduce production of oil.

BP said the pipeline would close when the provision of steam and electricity from Grangemouth runs out.

The company added that it would keep the pipeline open as long as possible, but anticipated shutting it late on Saturday, if strike action goes ahead.

Oil hit a record high of $119.90 a barrel on Tuesday.

Several factors have been behind the rally in oil prices.

Demand for oil from booming economies such as China and India is growing, while supplies have remained tight.

Opec, a group of oil producing countries, has shown itself disinclined to raise quotas to curb rising prices.

And supply disruptions, like those in Nigeria and the expected shutdown of the Forties pipeline, have lead to short-term spikes in prices.

A weak dollar has also made dollar-denominated assets such as oil and other commodities relatively cheap for some investors.

From BBC World News Service

The 80 lb limit is mainly aimed toward restaurants. And there's no real shortage, people are just worried the price will go up. As usual, fear of a threat turns it into one.