Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5883 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
Wow, this is bad news for not only the Scots, but those of us here in the northeast US. This US region gets about 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline from England. A loss of gasoline supplies when gasoline imports are already falling well behind normal levels could cause severe problems here in just a few weeks.
The only bright spot is that it's mentioned the strike is planned to last only for 48 hours.
Quote:
Refinery strike talks break down
Page last updated at 21:14 GMT, Wednesday, 23 April 2008 22:14 UK
The planned strike could close down the Grangemouth refinery
A strike which could close down Scotland's only oil refinery will go ahead after talks between the Unite union and plant bosses broke down.
Operators Ineos and the union held two days of talks at conciliation service Acas in a bid to halt the strike by workers at the Grangemouth plant.
Up to 1,200 workers will walk out on Sunday and Monday over proposals to change pension scheme arrangements.
The refinery processes 210,000 barrels of oil a day.
Talks To Avert Strike At Scotland Refinery Fail -Union
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
April 23, 2008 4:51 p.m.
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP)--Talks to avert a strike at Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland have broken down, union officials said Wednesday night.
The Unite union said a two-day strike by up to 1,200 workers at the site in Scotland will now go ahead on Sunday and Monday, threatening fuel supplies.
Union officials had been meeting with managers from refinery owner Ineos PLC for two days. But the union said the talks had failed to resolve a dispute over pensions.
Ineos announced earlier Wednesday it had already closed one of its crude stills at the Grangemouth refinery and plans to shut more.
"By Sunday the entire refinery will be fully closed," the Ineos spokesman earlier Wednesday said of the 200,000 barrel a day refinery, which is one of the U.K.'s largest. The spokesman was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires.
"We started by shutting down the chemical facilities and yesterday (Tuesday) we closed one of the crude stills and will continue with that today," he told Dow Jones. "It's a seven day process and we're halfway through that."
BP PLC (BP) is preparing for a possible shutdown of the Forties North Sea crude oil pipeline system if the strike proceeds, the company said.
The strike had been called to protest plans by Ineos to close its final salary pension scheme to new workers and to make other changes to its pensions.
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject: Re: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
DantesPeak wrote:
Wow, this is bad news for not only the Scots, but those of us here in the northeast US. This US region gets about 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline from England. A loss of gasoline supplies when gasoline imports are already falling well behind normal levels could cause severe problems here in just a few weeks.
The only bright spot is that it's mentioned the strike is planned to last only for 48 hours.
The refinery is anticipated to be offline for up to 1 month. This is going to lead to shortages in petroleum products here in the UK and may also lead to the cessation or reduction of oil and/or gas production from the Forties pipeline system. The only bright point I can see is if it wakes a few people up!
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5883 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
sjn wrote:
DantesPeak wrote:
Wow, this is bad news for not only the Scots, but those of us here in the northeast US. This US region gets about 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline from England. A loss of gasoline supplies when gasoline imports are already falling well behind normal levels could cause severe problems here in just a few weeks.
The only bright spot is that it's mentioned the strike is planned to last only for 48 hours.
The refinery is anticipated to be offline for up to 1 month. This is going to lead to shortages in petroleum products here in the UK and may also lead to the cessation or reduction of oil and/or gas production from the Forties pipeline system. The only bright point I can see is if it wakes a few people up!
It won't be waking up anyone in the US just yet. To put this bluntly, if the refinery is closed one month, along with the Forties field, we should be making preparations for gasoline shortages in the US.
However I don't think any firm actions will be taken here in the US until the "no gas" signs are put up and plastic bags cover the pumps. In the US, there is still a strong belief that the "free market" provides the solution to all distribution problems. This has recently lead the US to export diesel even while truckers are being pushed out of business by high prices.
Unfortunately the "free market" will not deliver us all the oil products we want in the post Peak Oil era.
Quote:
Breakdown in Grangemouth dispute talks
MANY DRIVERS were still panic-buying petrol and putting filling stations under pressure yesterday as talks to avert a strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery broke down.
A two-day strike by up to 1200 workers will now go ahead on Sunday and Monday, threatening fuel supplies.
Officials from Unite had met with bosses from Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth plant, at the conciliation service Acas, but the union announced there had been no breakthrough.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5883 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:28 am Post subject: Re: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
Quote:
Panic at the pumps: Soaring petrol prices and fuel rationing introduced to prevent garage droughts
Last updated at 11:06am on 24th April 2008
Industrial action by workers at a giant oil refinery, which threatens to disrupt fuel supplies, could be escalated following the breakdown of peace talks, a union leader warned today.
Up to 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth site in Scotland will walk out on Sunday and Monday in a bitter row over plans to end their final salary pension scheme for new entrants and to make other changes.
Demand for unleaded fuel has risen by 68 per cent, according to the UK Petroleum Industry Association, a trade body for the industry.
Demand for diesel was up 40 per cent, it added.
To protect supplies, some garages have introduced unofficial "rationing", limiting customers to £10 of fuel.
Strike could close key Grangemouth oil refinery for a monthAngela Jameson
Plans to haul fuel by road from locations in England and Wales to Scotland will be put in place today ahead of a two-day strike at Grangemouth, Scotland's biggest oil refinery.
A strike by 1,200 workers at the refinery looks certain to go ahead on Sunday and Monday after negotiations between union officials and company executives collapsed last night.
Grangemouth has been in the process of shutting down since the weekend ,and the company said that it now had no option but to shut down the refinery completely for safety reasons.
It will take up to a month to bring the refinery back up to full capacity, according to its owners.
UPDATE 2-Refinery strike may halve UK NSea oil output
Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:00pm BST
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By Margaret Orgill and Daniel Fineren
(Updates throughout)
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - A strike planned this weekend at a major Scottish refinery would force the closure of the key Forties North Sea pipeline, its owner BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday, halving Britain's crude oil output.
Talks to resolve the dispute at the 200,000 barrel-a-day Grangemouth refinery, which collapsed late on Wednesday, are unlikely to resume and the two-day strike over pensions is set to go ahead on Sunday, trades union officials said.
The refinery has been shutting down gradually all week and once a heat and power station on the site shuts on Saturday, the Forties pipeline will have to close as the power plant supplies the nearby Kinneil facility which processes Forties crude.
"Without the power and steam, we can't keep the Kinneil operation running and so we would have to shut down," a BP spokesman said, adding the Forties pipeline would also have to shut.
The 700,000 barrel-a-day Forties pipeline carries about half of Britain's North Sea oil production.
BP has said that it would need to start shutting the pipeline about 24 hours before the shutdown of the Grangemouth power station.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5883 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:57 pm Post subject: Re: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
Quote:
BP Says Forties Crude Output Faces 6-Day Disruption - Platts
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
April 24, 2008 2:30 p.m.
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Crude oil flows through the BP PLC-operated (BP) Forties Pipeline System, or FPS, could be disrupted for at least six days if a strike at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland goes ahead Sunday, reported Platts energy news and pricing agency Thursday.
The 210,000-barrel-a-day refinery, which supplies power and steam to the FPS, is shutting down ahead of the two-day strike and is expected to be fully closed by Saturday.
Chemical company Ineos will likely shut power supplies to the Forties Pipeline System late Saturday, Platts reported, citing a BP note to users of the pipeline.
Pipeline throughput will start to be reduced 24 hours before power is shut off, and North Sea fields connected to the FPS will be brought offline 12 hours before the power is cut, Platts reported.
BP said it hopes to be able to restart the FPS relatively quickly after the strike ends, according to Platts.
"Startup will essentially be a reversal of the shutdown sequence and will take up to 48 hours, dependent on the startup rates of individual shippers," Platts reported, quoting the BP statement.
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject: Re: Scottish Refinery Workers Union Give Go Ahead for Strike
I will take this as evidence of my working hypothesis that while the underlying problem is one of physics and geology, that it will manifest itself as "people problems." Workers will go on strike. Governments will go to war or nationalize the resource, making decline rates a mute point to those of us in importing nations. Some will turn to crime others will turn on their kin.
This is why the math doesn't work to tell the whole story. We are humans and we will respond to this existential threat in the way that humans have, and always will, respond to existential threats. _________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Kenneth Galbraith
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