Selfsufficientish.com

Grangemouth oil refinery is shutting down for at least a month to allow a strike to go ahead, and various people are calling for calm. Motorists are being urged not to panic buy.

So, we went to Inverurie this morning to get a few bits and bobs (grease, gear oil and garden stuff) and what do we come across?

A 30-car queue waiting to get into the T***o service station and a totally jammed forecourt.

Are the management trying to frighten the public to win the pension argument. Is this company of sufficient pedigree to run such a vital installation? I think not!

John

If the media says don't panic then naturally everyone becomes very selfish and starts to panic. - Look at Northern Rock.

I think it would be great if this fuel shortage really happened. Gives everybody a taste of what it's like not to be able to drive wherever they like... (And yes, I know, I know - some people need the car to get to work, or to hospital etc - but let's face it, the time will come when there simply won't be the fuel to do it anyway, so why not have a practise run now!)

This is a lovely example of "efficiency" being anything but. When I started in the oil industry and a very long time before I sobered up and quit (a long time before I even started to worry about the environment, come to think of it), there were any number of small coastal oil terminals fed by little tanker vessels. I used to run tankers into Bowling, Scapa Flow, Aberdeen, Inverness and a tiny place in the Western Isles that I can't remember.

It all worked rather well, but it did employ smelly human work units and required a certain amount of care in operation. So, one by one, they were all run down and closed, and the reduction in headcount, so beloved of witless consultants incapable of any really imaginative thought, "offset" the cost burning huge quantities of hydrocarbon moving more hydrocarbon by road where once it moved by sea. Trebbles all round.

Except that Grangemouth is now the only source of hydrocarbon supply in Scotland. That closes and all the petrol has to be trucked from the next nearest refineries...in Cheshire and on the Humber because there is no alternative infrastructure.

And people will panic because they genuinely believe that there really is no alternative to driving everywhere. It would be funny were it not so sad.

My pet hate: Centralisation!

Same with abattoirs, hospitals, you name it; looks great on paper, is anything but.

ina wrote:My pet hate: Centralisation!

I am a convert: I was always taught centralisation is good, because it is more efficient. But, it ignores the wisdom of not putting all the eggs in one basket. It also places control in the hands of too few.

Our local garage is just about out of diesel and, according to two of the mums at nursery this morning, one at Huntly is rationing. As well as shortages, prices will probably go higher too. Our garage (independent) will have to get supplies from Humberside and that means additional costs.

I am down in west lothian, not that far from the refinery.

yesterday on the way back from a job I passed a garage, it was packed, it has 4 rows of pumps and they all had the 2 cars using the pump and 2 or 3 cars behind.

good old fashioned panic buying at its finest.

We passed a few packed out last night. Seems a bit daft, there's no way they're going to stop selling petrol they'll just make it more expensive. (and never bring the price down after the refinery re-opens). I also can't quite believe that all Scotlands petrol comes from one refinery? That's (potentially) disastrous!

Anyway I guess I'll have to wait and see if I am going down to Dundee to visit my mother at the weekend given I currently only have half a tank of petrol.

Cassiepod wrote:I also can't quite believe that all Scotlands petrol comes from one refinery? That's (potentially) disastrous!

Oh no, it's efficient!

Same with supermarkets, though: if the current development carries on, in a short while we'll all be buying everything from just one supplier. Who can then do what they like with us.

The reason for 1 refinery is the complicated and expensive supply lines from oil rigs. As there is only 1, the company running the refinery must act in a responsible manner or else leave it to one who can.
As for supermarkets, they will never own all the shopping locations.

Perhaps they won`t own them but they do a good job of putting them out of business. I went to my local newsagent today to be told that A**A have taken over their lease and doubled the rent so they`re having to close down. We used to have a butcher, greengrocer and haberdasher before A**A opened locally now they`re all gone. Even a local tyre/exhaust fitter has gone. A**A wanted the land to extend the car park.
It`s all right for me - I`m retired and have the time and a free bus pass to get to the market & the whole food shop in town but folks with young families are trapped into using A**A.

Isn't that what A**A or their so called counterpart did in the USA.. going into small towns, setting up and putting all the small individual retailers out of business, then packing up and moving on, leaving small towns totally devastated?
We have 1 butcher left in our town, everything else has to come from the supermarkets which I despise!

Dori wrote:Isn't that what A**A or their so called counterpart did in the USA.. going into small towns, setting up and putting all the small individual retailers out of business, then packing up and moving on, leaving small towns totally devastated?
We have 1 butcher left in our town, everything else has to come from the supermarkets which I despise!

Same here. We've now managed to eliminate supermarkets for most fresh stuff, but it took a lot of work and it's a shame not to have a range of shops to pop into as and when. Ah well, if the butcher hasn't gone by now he's probably here to stay!