Workers at a key British oil refinery began a two-day strike yesterday, forcing a major North Sea pipeline to shut down and sparking fuel shortages.
The walkout began at 6am at the Grangemouth refinery, west of Edinburgh, as a convoy of tankers headed from Europe to keep Scotland moving throughout the industrial action.
The Forties pipeline “shut down around six o’clock this morning,” a spokesman for operator BP said. More than 1,200 workers are striking in a row over pensions.
The key pipeline brings more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore every day, supplying around 40 percent of Britain’s oil and gas, plus international markets.
It is powered by the refinery, which has already been shut down by operator Ineos. Grangemouth supplies Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
Earlier a spokeswoman for the Unite trade union said the strike was going ahead “but we’re ready to discuss a solution at any time.”
Offshore oil industry body Oil and Gas UK urged ministers to intervene, saying the pipeline closure would cost the economy £50 million (US$100 million) per day in lost production, with the Treasury hit hardest.
“It is now time for the UK government at the highest level to step in and take all the necessary actions to ensure that the country is not held ransom in this manner,” chief executive Malcolm Webb said.
However, ministers insisted there would be enough fuel to go round, so long as people did not panic buy. However, some Scottish gasoline stations have already run dry, while others have brought in rationing or price hikes to keep panic buying down.
The Scottish government announced yesterday that around 65,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, was being shipped into Scotland from European ports such as Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Gothenburg.
Scotland consumes around 6,000 tonnes of diesel per day.
“We will have ample fuel supplies to see Scotland through this dispute and well into May,” First Minister Alex Salmond said. “This will provide extra reassurance for consumers and businesses alike as we look ahead to the coming working week. Supplies are still flowing across the country ahead of these arrivals.”
“No doubt there will be some difficulties through the early part of the week as we await the reopening of the Grangemouth facility. However, the required fuel for Scotland is on the way,” he said.
Britain’s Business Secretary John Hutton said: “There is plenty of petrol and diesel in Scotland to meet demand during this period of time. But of course there is going to be a challenge if people change the way that they consume fuel.”
It is the first time in more than 70 years that a British refinery was shut down because of a strike.
Some 70 oil fields feed into the Forties pipeline. Around two-thirds of oil from the pipeline is immediately exported.
North Sea oil platforms could be forced to shut down because of the strike, the BP spokesman said, adding they would likely take a few days to get up and running again afterwards.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said there is no need for industrial action in the dispute and urged Ineos and Unite to talk.
The dispute comes at an awkward time for Brown, ahead of London mayoral and local elections on Thursday in which opinion polls suggest his governing Labour Party could struggle.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat