Posted on 04/27/2008 6:44:28 AM PDT by kellynla
Hundreds of workers at Scotland's only oil refinery on Sunday began a 48-hour strike that has forced BP PLC to shut a pipeline system that delivers almost a third of Britain's North Sea oil.
BP said it had completed the closure of the Forties Pipeline System by 6 a.m., when 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland walked off the job. The pipeline brings in 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea to BP's Kinneil plant, which is powered from the Grangemouth site.
Energy industry group Oil & Gas U.K. said the strike, over pension issues, could cost $100 million a day in lost production.
The main effect of the walkout was likely to be felt by the British Treasury — which relies heavily on taxes from oil production — and at gas stations in Scotland, some of which limited purchases in anticipation of the strike.
The government urged motorists not to hoard fuel, saying there would be enough to go around. It wants to avoid a repeat of scenes in 2000 when motorists were forced to line up at gas stations as truckers angry at heavily taxed fuel brought Britain to a standstill by blockading refineries.
"There is plenty of petrol and diesel in Scotland to meet demand during this period of time," the government's business secretary, John Hutton, told the British Broadcasting Corp. "But of course there is going to be a challenge if people change the way that they consume fuel."
Gas stations in and around Edinburgh were limiting purchases to 20 pounds — equivalent to $40 — per visit Saturday, and lines of cars formed beside some pumps. A number of stations reported they had run out of gas and diesel.
Some Scottish gas stations were charging 1.25 pounds — $2.47 — Saturday for a liter of unleaded, up from about 1.08 pounds — $2.14 — on Monday.
The Scottish government said 72,000 tons of extra fuel was being imported from Europe to help keep the country running.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the strike was unnecessary and called for new negotiations between Grangemouth's owner, the chemical company Ineos, and the workers' union, Unite. Talks to avert a strike broke down earlier this week.
The refinery strike is one of a series of labor disputes to hit Britain as the global economy weakens.
A nationwide teachers' strike over pay issues shut about a third of schools across Britain on Thursday as the government tries to clamp down on public sector wage increases due to inflation fears
once again, friends, your problem isn't OPEC.
s/b “ideology.” but you knew that.
Of course this would happen now. I’m going on vacation this week, it never fails.
The answer ISN'T raising taxes on the oil companies, Barak Hussein Obama.
This should only affect Britain but the speculators are looking for any excuse to drive prices into the stratosphere. It will be interesting to see if a new record is set on Monday.
yeah. and then there's an entire economy that needs to make sure it's got energy to function next quarter. That can affect prices too.
“Brent crude oil futures rose to a record $117.56 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange on April 25 amid concern the strike will disrupt output.
The U.K. government said that U.K. fuel supplies are sufficient and people needn’t rush to buy gasoline.
``The basic point is that that there are sufficient supplies and people are behaving in a responsible way,’’
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atrEMf74qZwg&refer=home
But this won’t stop American gas stations from raising their prices. An Iranian could ‘break wind’ today and the price of gasoline would rise on Monday. LOL
We “loonies” don’t raise futures prices.
What school of economics did you flunk out of?
I do, however, bid on futures contracts when I see a chance to make money from that investment.
Just like any other sector.
Investment chases return.
Will trade white rice for gas!
Hey, that used to be my line. But you can use it. Actually it was "Arab sheik discovers he has B.O., the price goes up..."
A varieation on the theme I suppose.
Fair enough. Thank you for your post - bill
Latest:
• Grangemouth oil refinery is shutdown.
• The Forties Pipeline is shutdown
• Over 60 North Sea oil and gas fields are shutdown.
• About 700,000 bpd oil production lost costing £40 million / day @ $110 per barrel
• About 70 million cubic meters natural gas production lost per day costing £42 million / day @ 60 p / therm
• BP, Shell, Exxon-Mobil, BG Group, Conoco-Philips, Chevron-Texaco, Total, Marathon, Tallisman, Nexen, Venture, Dana and many more companies affected
• Global energy prices rise
http://europe.theoildrum.com/
wait, there’s more: speculation results in price discovery. price discovery drives production, and r&d.
This might actually be the first thread on this subject. Should have been happening on Friday but there was near total silence.
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