Refinery strike drains gas pumps
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Strikers carry flags and placards at the entrance to Ineos Group Holdings Plc's refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland. Bloomberg News |
Tony Walden squeezes his green mobile crane on to the forecourt of a Shell gasoline station on the outskirts of Edinburgh and waits. It's the fourth set of pumps he's tried, and all are out of diesel.
"I can't move," said Walden, 65, whose tank was almost empty. "It's disgusting. It's bringing everyone to a halt."
Truckers, taxi drivers and regular car owners are flooding fuel stations across Scotland because of concern about shortages during a strike by about 1,200 workers at the country's only oil refinery. Calls by the government not to buy gasoline and diesel in panic have gone unheeded as retailers raise prices, and union leaders warn the dispute may escalate.
The walkout at the Ineos Group Holdings Plc plant at Grangemouth, 30 miles west of Edinburgh, started on Sunday at 6 am and will continue through today. The strike halted power and steam supplies to the Forties Pipeline System, forcing the total shutdown of the network by BP Plc yesterday. The pipeline carries 40 percent of the oil produced in the United Kingdom.
While Ineos said it may take three weeks to return the refinery to its 200,000-barrel-a-day capacity, fuel is en route from the Netherlands and Sweden, Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, said.
He said there were "localized difficulties" in obtaining diesel and urged people to use public transport and avoid unnecessary journeys. After discussions with the UK government in London, there were no current plans to ration fuel, he said.
Truckers are being given limited supplies, according to the Scotland and Northern Ireland Road Haulage Association. The Scottish Government said seven tankers with 65,000 tons of fuel were sailing for the country, the Scotland on Sunday newspaper reported.
Demand for gasoline at stations around Glasgow and Edinburgh rose by as much as 50 percent, the UK Petroleum Industry Association said as the refinery shut down last week.
"They're telling us not to panic, but look at that," said James McLauchlan, 62, pointing to the line of cars waiting for fuel at a Tesco store in Edinburgh as he filled his silver Ford Fiesta car. "In two days, there'll not be any petrol."
Agencies
(China Daily 04/29/2008 page17)
