The strike at the oil refinery in Grangemouth enters day two today. The strike has led to the unprecedented shutting off of the Forties pipeline, which provides a third of Britain's North Sea oil. It has been making headlines across the world and been blamed for the record price of oil of near $120 a barrel.
However, Scottish Ministers are confident that the strike will not cause major disruption, although there have been complaints about long queues, rationing, price hikes, and some forecourt closures. Petrol in Edinburgh is now a few pence north of a £1 per litre, apparently cheaper than some other parts of Britain.
The government reported that at midday Saturday only five of the 956 filling stations in Scotland were out of fuel and seventy forecourts were partially out of fuel.
First Minister Alex Salmond said yesterday: "From across Europe, unprecedented supplies of additional fuel are arriving in, and heading for, the Forth over the coming days to make up for the loss of production at Grangemouth."
On an average day, Scotland consumes around 6,000 tonnes of diesel
fuel. The additional imports over the coming days represent
nearly 10 days of normal supply.
Back up supplies include: 3,000 tonnes of diesel and kerosene, bound from Grangemouth to Aberdeen yesterday evening and seven shipments bound for the Forth containing nearly 65,000 tonnes of fuel. This includes:
* Antares from Teesport - 5,700 tonnes - Diesel and Kerosene
* BIT Octania from Gothenburg - 10,000 tonnes - Diesel
* Alsterstern from Amsterdam - 12-14,000 tonnes - Diesel
* Bro Developer from Rotterdam - 14,000 tonnes - Diesel
* Audacity from Immingham - 1,850 tonnes - Motorspirit
* Anefani from Rotterdam - 14,000 tonnes - Diesel
* Humber Fisher from Teesport - 4,000 tonnes - Diesel and Kerosene
The Cabinet Sub-Committee has now met on 11 occasions since the Grangemouth strike situation began. The SEER emergency response unit, based in St Andrew's House, has been active for nine days and is now in its fourth day of 24 hour operation.
A government statement said, "if the public continue to refill their vehicles as normal there will be minimal inconvenience and disruption."
Straightening out some facts
Apparently some publications had some factual inaccuracies.
The government statement said:
* Essential services - including ambulances and other emergency vehicles - will receive the fuel they need to continue to operate and provide their services to members of the public. Any suggestions to the contrary are entirely without foundation
* The Astro Arcturus tanker which was reportedly not unloaded at Grangemouth was not one of the seven tankers bringing in additional fuel. Indeed it was not carrying fuel, it was carrying crude oil, which is irrelevant to the current situation
* Phil McNulty of Unite has confirmed that there are no plans for any escalation or new strike, and they want a period of reflection after the end of the current strike. Government officials remain in close contact with relevant organisations and are monitoring the situation. We continue to urge both parties to resume discussion and try to resolve this dispute
* The Armed Forces have not been involved and there are no current plans to involve them