23.04.08 Oil strike pushes UK pump prices to record highs
Petrol prices across the UK have reached new records, with a 10 day run of all-time highs attributed to the threat of the UK's first oil refinery closure in 73 years.
The threat of closure has led to panic buying at stations in Scotland, price increaces of 5p per litre at some stations, and has been blamed for pushing the price of oil up to a record $119.90 yesterday. It is also partly responsible for the record-breaking pump prices across the rest of the UK too.
The national average for diesel has shot up 2p per litre in the last 10 days, and unleaded has risen 1.1p.
The national average price for a litre of unleaded and diesel in the UK has risen to 108.9p and 118.9p respectively. The cheapest unleaded now costs 103.9p a litre, and 111.9p for diesel.
Around 1000 staff at the Ineos refinery in Grangemough, Scotland, are expected to take part in the 2-day strike on 27th and 28th April after a row over changes to final salary pensions. The refinery has already started shutting down in preparation to make sure the site is safe in time.
The refinery supplies all of Scotland and parts of Northern England, and is the UK's 6th largest refinery producing 200,000 barrels of oil a day. Even closing for 2 days would take the refinery a month to return to normal production.
It was originally thought that this could leave Scotland without fuel for a month, but the government has reassured drivers that it has contingency plans in place to deal with this scenario, including around 70 days worth of fuel supplies which would cover any shortages.
The mere threat of closure has pushed both oil and petrol prices up, across the country not just in Scotland – the strike needs to be averted before any further damage is done. Motorists are understandably worried because many people, especially those in rural areas, depend on their car. Unfortunately the worst thing drivers can do is go out and fill up – panic buying will only increase the chance of shortages and push prices up.
Any disruptions to the normal fuel cycle will increase pump prices, and instead of filling up and making the problem worse motorists should conserve their existing petrol, if possible, by using alternative methods of transport – walking, cycling or trains for short journeys. Most importantly drivers should use PetrolPrices.com to make sure they don't fall victim to profiteering. Prices in Scotland particularly, and across the UK, are likely to increase further if the dispute is not resolved. Drivers need to make sure they are not getting ripped off.








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Down here you can only fill £10 of diesil max and £20 of unleaded in most stations the price has risen again 4 times in 3 weeks i asked all i got was we been told by head office load of shite i shook my head and said dont belive that one i for one have no fight left im sick of it as from today i guess ive got peak oil theroy in my head lol truely ive had enough all about panic buying not enough about getting the price back down as people have stated never will so whats the point may as well do as peak oil suggested like it or not he is getting proven right evey day
PEAK OIL - DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT.
"There is little doubt that crude oil is our world's 'master domino': when it thrives, all other dominoes flourish, and when it tumbles, it does topple all of the others too." - Dr. Ali Bakhtiari (Former Director at the National Iranian Oil Co. of Tehran).
"Previous energy transitions were gradual and evolutionary. Oil peaking will be abrupt and revolutionary." - U.S. Department of Energy (March 2005 Report).
"The basic, fundamental building block of the world economy is in danger of becoming extremely scarce." - Richard Cheney (Vice President of the United States).
"The doubling of oil prices in the past couple of years is not an anomaly, but a picture of the future. Peak oil is at hand." - US Army Corps Of Engineers (September 2005 Report).
"The peak oil scenarios portrayed are absolutely not alarmist; they're realistic." - Robert Gates (former Director of the CIA).
"What people need to hear loud and clear is that we're running out of energy in America." - George W. Bush (President, Unites States).
"I continue to believe that the American consumer is the weak link in the global daisy chain. The combination of rising long-term interest rates and higher oil prices puts an unmistakable squeeze on discretionary income .... the last thing overly indebted, savings-short US consumers need." - Stephen Roach (Managing Director and Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley).
"The end of the fossil hydrocarbons scenario is not a doom and gloom picture painted by pessimistic end of the world prophets, but a view of scarcity in the coming years and decades that must be taken seriously." - Deutsche Bank (Energy Prospects After The Petroleum Age - 2004 Report).
ARE RESOURCE WARS COMING?
"So where is this oil going to come from? The Middle East is where the prize ultimately lies." - Richard Cheney (1999 Speech To The Institute Of Petroleum).
"In World War II, the United States consumed about a gallon of fuel per soldier per day. In the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, about 4 gallons of fuel per soldier was consumed per day. In 2006, the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan burned about 16 gallons of fuel per soldier on average per day." - U.S. Department Of Defence (2007 Report).
"We can do a better job in conservation, but we darn sure have to do a better job of finding more supply." - George W. Bush (President, United States Of America).
"The great nations just aren't throwing enough money at the problem. Instead, they are preparing to fight for the last drops of oil." - London Times (2005).
"Energy consumption is indispensable to our standard of living and a necessity for the Army to carry out its mission. However, current trends are not sustainable. The impact of excessive, unsustainable energy consumption may undermine the very culture and activities it supports." - U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers (September 2005 Report).
"Oil is unique because it is so strategic in nature. We are not talking about soapflakes or leisurewear ... the Gulf War was a reflection of that reality." - Richard Cheney (Vice President of the United States).
"I fear we're going to be at war for decades, not years; Ultimately we will win it, but one major component of that war is oil." - James Woolsey (Former Director of the CIA).
"The amount of energy is finite, up to now in relation to demand and competition for access to energy can become the life and death for many societies." - Henry Kissinger (Financial Times Article - Kissinger Warns Of Energy Conflict).
"Given the thermodynamic deficiencies of the alternatives to oil, the complexity of a large scale switch to these new sources of energy, and the wrenching economic and social effects of a declining energy supply, you can see why our leaders view force as the only viable way to deal with the coming crisis." - Matt Savinar (Founder of the 'LifeAfterTheOilCrash' web site)
WHAT ARE THE EXPERTS SAYING?
"The consequences (if true) would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And car-less suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big-box stores--not to buy Chinese-made clothing transported cheaply across the globe, but to scavenge glass and copper wire from abandoned buildings." - Chicago Tribune (Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Paul Salopek).
"I continue to believe that the American consumer is the weak link in the global daisy chain. The combination of rising long-term interest rates and higher oil prices puts an unmistakable squeeze on discretionary income ... the last thing overly indebted, savings-short US consumers need." - Stephen Roach (Managing Director and Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley).
"The world has never faced a problem like peak oil. Without massive mitigation more than a decade before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and will not be temporary." - U.S. Department of Energy (March 2005 Report).
"If the peak comes and we can't get our act together fast enough to make up for it, you will end up with people all over the world burning coal as fast as they can just for the space heating and primitive industry. Such a large scale switch to coal could produce global warming so severe that life on planet Earth would cease to exist." - Dr. David Goodstein (Professor of Physics at Caltech).
"The American people are going to pay a terrible price for not having had an energy strategy." - Robert Gates (Former Director of the CIA).
"Globalisation makes it impossible for modern societies to collapse in isolation. Any society in turmoil today, no matter how remote, can cause problems for prosperous societies on other continents." - Jared Diamond (Prize winning author of 'Guns, Germs and Steel').
"The medical profession must eventually be forced to consider whether in an age of fuel scarcity it will be possible to maintain at their present level hospital procedures consuming large quantities of energy." - J.A. Lorraine (Author of 'Medicine and the Energy Crisis').
"Petroleum impacts medical care at every level. Advanced technology is worthless without the energy to run it." - Burt Kline (Former Director of the Division of Energy Policy of the U.S. Health Resources Administration).
"The United States must start now to respond to peaking global oil production to offset adverse economic and national security impacts." - U.S. Department of Energy (March 2004).
"Nevertheless, even with greater efficiency, the total amount of energy used by 2030 will have increased by almost two-thirds." - Rex Tillerson (President of ExxonMobil).
"I fear we're going to be at war for decades, not years... Ultimately we will win it, but one major component of that war is oil". - James Woolsey (Former Director of the CIA).
SCIENCE CAN SAVE US - RIGHT?
"The notion that massive 'free lunches' in energy efficiency will result from tweaking the market with new regulations and standards, he said, is misguided". - Dr. Robert Stavins (Environmental Economist - Harvard University).
"In the United States, annual federal spending for all energy research and development - not just the research aimed at climate-friendly technologies - is less than half what it was a quarter-century ago. It has sunk to $3 billion a year in 2006, down from $7.7 billion in 1979." - New York Times (October 2006).
"The laws of physics mean the hydrogen economy will always be an energy sink. No matter how much money is spent you will always use more energy to create, store, and transport hydrogen than you will ever get out of it." - Alice Friedemann (Author of 'The Hydrogen Economy - Energy and Economic Black Hole').
"It would take every single one of California's 13,000 wind turbines operating at 100% capacity (they usually operate at about 30%) all at the same time to generate as much electricity as a single 555-megawatt natural gas fired power plant." - Paul Driessen (Canada Free Press).
"The basic problem of hydrogen fuel cells is that the second law of thermodynamics dictates that we will always have to expend more energy deriving the hydrogen than we will receive from the usage of that hydrogen. The common misconception is that hydrogen fuel cells are an alternative energy source when they are not." - Michael Ruppert (Founder and Editor of 'From The Wilderness').
"I think what people don't understand about hydrogen is that it is not a source of energy. You have to use energy to make hydrogen and it takes the equivalent of six gallons of gasoline to make enough hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline." - Dr. David Goodstein (Professor of Physics at Caltech).
"Nuclear is an alternative, but remember you're not going to have any nuclear cars and nuclear airplanes. Nuclear is not a substitute for oil." - Dr. David Goodstein (Professor of Physics at Caltech).
"There is no battery pack which can effectively move heavy farm machinery over miles of farm fields, and no electric battery system seems even remotely able to propel a Boeing 747 for 14 hours nonstop at 600 miles an hour." - Dr. Walter Youngquist (Geologist).
"Relying on corn for our future energy needs would devastate the nation's food production. It takes 11 acres to grow enough corn to fuel one automobile with ethanol for 10,000 miles, or about a year's driving. That's the amount of land needed to feed seven persons for the same period of time. And if we decided to power all of our automobiles with ethanol, we would need to cover 97 percent of our land with corn. That's a lot of corn." - Dr. David Pimental (Chairman - U.S. Department of Energy - Commitee on Ethanol).
HOW MUCH OIL IS LEFT?
"The basic, fundamental building block of the world economy is in danger of becoming extremely scarce". - Richard Cheney (Vice President of the Unites States).
"The world has now reached the point of Peak Oil. After nearly 150 years of uninterrupted supply growth crude oil production has peaked and has entered its irreversible decline." - Dr. Ali Bakhtiari (Former Director at the National Iranian Oil Co. of Tehran).
"All the easy oil and gas in the world has pretty much been found. Now comes the harder work in finding and producing oil from more challenging environments and work areas." - William Cummings (ExxonMobil Spokesman in Angola).
The most knowledgeable experts revised their predictions and now concur that 2005 is apt to be the year of all-time global peak production." - James Howard Kunstler (Author of 'The Long Emergency').
"...there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day." - Richard Cheney (Vice President of the Unites States).
"The doubling of oil prices in the past couple of years is not an anomaly, but a picture of the future. Peak oil is at hand." - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (September 2005 Report).
"Nevertheless, even with greater efficiency, the total amount of energy used by 2030 will have increased by almost two-thirds." - Rex Tillerson (President of ExxonMobil).
For more facts:
GOOGLE 'PEAK OIL'
GOOGLE 'POWERSWITCH'
GOOGLE 'WOLFATTHEDOOR'
GOOGLE 'OILDRUM'
GOOGLE 'ASPO'
Start preparing for a life of austerity. NOW!
Find local employment. Reduce your debts. Reduce your fuel consumption. Grow your own vegetables or buy from local suppliers. Exercise regularly. Insulate your home. Help your family, friends and colleagues to understand the implications of Peak Oil.
I HAD THE FOLLOWING EMAIL SENT TO ME EARLIER, NOT SURE IF ITS GONNA DO ANY GOOD BUT LETS GIVE IT A TRY, AFTER ALL WHAT HAVE WE GOT TO LOSE.
See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it We are hitting
> £1.09 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying £1.10
> a ltr. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea: This makes MUCH MORE
> SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going
> around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because
> they knew we wouldn't Continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy
> petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for
> them. BUT, whoever Thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
> really work.. Please read it and join in! Now that the oil companies and
> the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is
> CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control
> the market place Not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each
> day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see
> the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not
> Purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
> Here's the idea: For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol
> from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP. If
> they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their
> prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to
> follow suit.. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of
> Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's Really simple to do!! Now, don't wimp out
> at this point... Keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach
> millions of people!! I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each
> of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... And those 300 send
> it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... And so on, by the time the
> Message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over
> THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and Pass this
> on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!
> If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION
> PEOPLE!!! Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.
> (and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends
> this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, All 300
> MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!
> Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes Sense to you,
> please pass this message on. PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR
> PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE It's easy to make this happen. Just
> forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys,
> Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e. Boycott BP and Esso
HAPPY MOTORING - IF WE DARE!!!!!!