UK Petrol Stations Run Dry

C

Contender

New member
Imagine a protest of this magnitude over gun rights. Interesting how Blair is getting powers broadened to deal with the situation.



Shell, Esso’s U.K. pumps running dry
Petrol stations expected to be dry by end of Tuesday

By Barbara Kollmeyer, FTMarketWatch 8:08:00 PM BST Sep 12, 2000

LONDON (FTMW) – U.K. oil group Shell [UK: SHEL] said nearly all of its petrol stations in Britain are out of fuel and Exxon Mobil’s [XOM] Esso said half of its stations were dry by late on Tuesday. Regional market
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The statement came on the heels of a growing fuel crisis, brought about by protests from farmers and hauliers in the country against rising taxes on fuel.

The protesters have blocked supplies leaving refineries and distribution centres.

Blair defiant

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would not give in to the protesters demands for lower taxes. Blair called on the oil companies to break the blockades with the help of police.

“Legitimate protest is one thing. Trying to bring the country to a halt is another. There can be no justification for it,” Blair told a news conference late on Tuesday.

Blair he expected the situation to be back towards normal within 24 hours. See MarketPulse.

Earlier the government said it’s cleared the way for contingency powers that would allow it to keep fuel supplies moving if a crisis develops. See FT.com story

Shell stations run dry

Shell’s press officer earlier in the day said 620 of its 1,100 petrol stations were out of fuel, or are about to run dry. That figure was bumped up to 1,070 stations that now have no petrol by late afternoon Tuesday.

Esso, a unit of Exxon, [XOM] said about half of its U.K. petrol stations were “unable to sell certain grades of fuel,” according to a company spokesman.

Esso also said some of its distribution centres are still being blocked by trucks.

Crude choppy



Meanwhile, crude prices climbed in London, amid concern that the weekend decision by OPEC to increase oil production by 800,000 barrels a day won’t be enough to ease the pressure on oil prices. Prices later fell in London. See full story

As for oil stocks, Goldman Sachs upgraded its share price targets and earnings forecasts on a host of European oil majors Tuesday, including Shell, Royal Dutch/Shell [US: RD] and ENI [EN]. See Market Pulse

The fuel crisis and the rising cost of oil may be casting a shadow on the European economy. In currency markets, Britain wasn’t getting a break either, with the pound dipping below $1.40 for the first time in 14 years. And in Europe, where some cities are also experiencing petrol woes, the euro hit two record lows earlier Tuesday.

Bumper to bumper

In London early Tuesday, cars were snaking around the street corners as drivers queued to get the dwindling petrol supplies.

Pressure against high petrol taxes began on August 1 with the “Dump the Pumps” campaign, started by a consumer pressure group under the same name. The group tried to persuade motorists to boycott stations in protest at the high cost of fuel.

The average cost of a liter of petrol in the U.K., around 80 pence, is comprised of more than 80 percent taxation.

A couple of tabloid newspapers in Britain picked up the theme, and have been running regular articles highlighting the problem. Calling it the “Great Petrol Revolt 2000,” the Sun newspaper, one of Britain’s best-known tabloid, on Tuesday invited readers to e-mail in with their opinions of the petrol crisis.

“Tony Blair (U.K. prime minister) has finally lost the plot,” fumed one Sun reader, Carolyn Harlow. “Doesn’t he realize that this fuel price protest is not just a few lorry drivers venting their frustration, it is the whole U.K. motoring population saying enough is enough.”

Barbara Kollmeyer is a reporter for FTMarketWatch.



(Tisk, tisk, that's what they get for electing an arrogant neofascist like Blair. Now they know what the gunowners felt like.)

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[This message has been edited by Contender (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
God. Here we go again. What's next? The gas lines of the 70's?

Brit motorists are facing a $7,500 fine for storing more than 15 litres of petrol.

Over 80 percent of the price of gas at pumps in Britain is TAX. They are paying over $5.00 (US) per gallon.

The Brits are having a tax revolt and the government is telling them to keep bending over and enjoy it.

Word has it that the entire UK will be OUT of fuel in 2 days give or take a day.

I know how mad I am for having to pay $2.00, for the last 6-8 months, a gallon for 87 octane so these people must really be furious.



[This message has been edited by JimDiver (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
Simple. It relates to taxes, a political issue, and the right to travel freely, a civil rights issue.

Allowed as stated in the Legal and Political forum description: "Round table discussions range from the Bill of Rights, to concealed carry, to general political issues." and in the Forum Rules rule #1 "All Topics and Posts must be related to firearms, accessories or civil liberties issues."




[This message has been edited by JimDiver (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
Yeah, mykl got tweaked and locked my thread on this subject over in General ( http://www.thefiringline.com:8080/forums/showthread.php?threadid=39041 ), but that was my bad. It was late at night, I was three beers into the mission, and I didn't follow through with my thought before I hit the "Submit" button. That being said, at least the moderator here kept his clue bat holstered in case the thread proved relevant, which IMHO, it is.

Basically it is this - our "civilization" has a very thin veneer, and something like the fuel crisis will prove just how thin it is, despite the UK's long history of human rights.

Things are going to get nasty, and if it isn't resolved, there are going to be many over there that wished to God they were armed. The police have their hands full now - what happens when the "yardies" and soccer thugs really start to howl?

There are a few of us here that were around in the last gas crisis. My wife, kids and I were back East in our California RV when it hit. When we'd line up for gas, people would pound on the vehicle and tell us to "Get back where you came from!". One poor guy from New Mexico couldn't get served on the turnpike in the planet Maryland. The State Police had to force the station to give the guy FIVE gallons at the then outrageos price of $2 a gallon so he could limp in to a KOA.

My wife's folks lived on a farm in Pennsylvania, had gas siphoned from their cars, so bought locking gas caps. The local white trash just crawled under the cars and punched a hole in the fuel tank. It was common in that countryside.

If things get that really bad over here, a few people might get shot stealing gas - then comes the New Rules. We'll probably get more restrictions as this situation is tailor-made for those kinds of laws.

THAT's why something, that on the surface, doesn't relate to guns, shows up here. Before it's all over, there will probably be quite a few stories here on how "I heard a noise, grabbed my gun, and . . ."

I hope not, but this is a meaner society than the one in the 70s, and the government is all the more intrusive.




[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
Tisk, tisk, that's what they get for electing an arrogant neofascist like Blair. Now they know what the gunowners felt like.)

EXACTLY, No sympathy from me. If you lie with a dog you know what you will awaken with.

Jim that limit on storing your own personal property sounds a lot like my stockpiling thread a couple weeks ago. They want everyone dependent on them.
 
Well, apropos to my last statement, it didn't take long . . . In line with the new edict, I'll just post a snippet, but things are beginning to look pretty hairy over there. Lock and load.

Panic Buyers Start to Strip Supermarkets

"Queues and frustration brought out the worst in some drivers, with fights reported on service station forecourts. Christopher Priestley, an employee at a Shell garage in Leeds said he saw violence just before fuel ran out. He said: "It has become a tragic situation - fighting over petrol. Two men pulled up at a super unleaded pump. One was punched as they fought to get there first."
 
Hmmm... Got Petrol?

Analysis: Oil Prices Kept High for Election
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000
You heard it here first.
As oil prices continued to soar, we told our readers not to believe press reports that prices would slump and that oil-producing countries were increasing production to force prices lower.

In fact, we reported that several Arab oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia, had decided that a price hike would be a good idea to wake Americans up that Al Gore is not their man.

These Arab states also would like to see Bush become president. His father is considered the most favorable president toward the Arab world ever to have been in the Oval Office.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Gas Prices Spark Road Rage in Europe
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000
Soaring fuel prices have set off angry protests all across Europe, provoking panic buying by gas-hungry motorists and trucker blockades cutting off deliveries of gasoline, stalling traffic and bringing whole cities to a standstill.
With gas prices nearing an all-time high of $5.00 a gallon and a severe winter approaching, Europe is staggering under a continent-wide series of protests.

• In Belgium trucker blockades all but shut down Brussels, with vehicles blocking streets and access to both Belgian government offices and the headquarters of the European Union.

• In England a trucker blockade of one refinery left over 100 Shell gasoline stations bone dry.

• Six days of blockades by French truckers and disgruntled motorists dried up fuel supplies and threw a monkey wrench into transportation facilities before the blockades were lifted.

• In Scotland farmers protesting high gas taxes blockaded Edinburgh streets with their tractors, stopping traffic dead.

• In Italy fishermen staged a blockade of docking facilities and threatened to shut down the nation’s ports if import taxes on diesel fuel are not cut.

• In Ireland the 4,000-member-strong truckers association demanded that import taxes on diesel fuel be slashed by 20 percent, threatening blockades and other protest actions.

• In Spain motorists are boycotting fuel facilities.

• In Greece taxi drivers warned the government they planned to strike.

The focus of most of the anger is exorbitant taxes on fuel that go as high as a staggering 80 percent of the retail price. In addition, soaring fuel costs, worsened by a drop in the value of European currency, sent gas prices skyrocketing to almost $5.00 a gallon.

For a third time this year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), meeting in Vienna, announced oil production hikes, agreeing to raise crude oil production by 800,000 barrels a day. Critics say the increase is a mere drop in the bucket and won't alleviate the crisis, doubting that the OPEC decision would reduce the oil price from its present level of $33.60 a barrel. OPEC responds by pointing out that European government taxes, and not OPEC, are the principal causes of high gas prices.

Some experts attribute the crisis to soaring demand for fuel outstripping production and warned that the oil industry simply cannot meet increasing demands for fuel. Others blame disputes among OPEC members, noting that Saudi Arabia, which sought a 6 percent increase, won only a 3 percent increase in production in the face of demands by Iran and Libya for a smaller rise in production.

The Saudis, who have been producing an extra 600,000 barrels a day since July, want the price of oil to drop to $25 a barrel, a proposal opposed by Kuwait.

"OPEC cares very much about stability in the oil market with fair and reasonable prices for consumers and is trying very hard to bring this about," OPEC President Ali Rodriguez, Venezuela's oil minister, told the World Tribune.


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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998
 
It's not lost on the British public that while their oil prices are going through the roof (and taxes are 80% of that cost), they are in fact a major oil producing country. The North Sea oil fields pumped 6.1 million barrels per day in 1998 and are one of the world's key non-OPEC oil fields.

This isn't the start of its decline, but it will likely be a major nail in the coffin of Social Democracy in Europe. People are just getting fed up with being bled dry by their governments.
 
I vehemently dislike and distrust Mr. Gore, and frankly, I could see a number of TFL members ending up behind bars if that idiot is elected. Civil disobedience will become an everyday thing re: the RKBA, with another 4 to 8 years of Democrat rule.

So, while I don't want to see anyone hurt, I sincerely hope we have one calamity after another until election day. I'd like some of their goofy environmental, tax and economic policies to bite them badly before the election, so that Gore has more of an uphill battle.

Not much time left ...

Regards from AZ
 
Jeff I wish it were to but I think that would be too good to be true, the powers that be will manipulate it enough to keep on keeping on. Nice thought though.
 
NPR reported this morning that Blair was ready to cave on this issue. He had been making statements about the protests being anti-democratic for the last couple of days. I don't know what he will do, but his stupid statements were obviously trash.
 
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