Europe Fuel Shortage Reports

shortonoil · **Posted:** Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:59 am

Permanently_Baffled said:

Quote:

Apparentley in pound terms , oil is 13% cheaper year on year?

Prices are going up because inventories are getting squeezed. The appreciation of the pound is helping the consumer, but as one of the paradoxes of PO, it is not providing them with any additional product. It is probably encouraging more usage of a product that is apparently already in short supply.

Twilight · **Joined:** Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:00 am **Posts:** 3062

The anecdotal evidence I see suggests shortonoil is correct on the UK demand side. It is stunning how many SUVs have hit the streets in the last couple of years. The occasional Land Rover, X5 or L200 aside, they were a rarity. In the last couple of years a wide range has become almost commonplace, most sporting 05 - 07 registrations. I have seen more car transporters on the road and on rail these last few months with SUVs on the back, than ever before. Even F150s and Dodge Ram, which granted, look like alien invaders next to the more staid Japanese SUVs, but even so, they're still here all of the sudden!

Maybe US consumers can't afford them any more, so with a few dashboard mods they're dumping them here?

Last month I overheard a conversation in which several young men revealed they were test-driving trucks with a view to a purchase, on the recommendation of a mutual friend and existing owner. Yeah, no Honda with flames on the side for them, they wanted muscle trucks. Scary thing is, because most are junk, for now they are affordable. Worse, I can see how tempting it is to consider, with options suddenly on offer that simply did not exist before, and money being cheap. And at 97 pence per litre, people aren't even blinking, just like I said. The cost to the consumer has not increased for 7 years.

If this continues, we are gimped. The real price of petrol in the UK could easily be broadening the pool of people who will suffer later.

skeptic · **Posted:** Tue Jul 17, 2007 11:22 am

No shortages in my area of Spain - on the Med, close to border between Alicante and Valencia. We are not subject to the seasonal price cycling seen in the USA, and have been insulated from rising price somewhat by the fall of the $ against the Euro - crude, fortunately for us being priced in Dollars.

Looking at it that way.. Rise in oil price or fall in the value of the dollar? take your pick.

BTW... except for the w**kers in Ferraris and huge SUVs most people round my way drive small to medium size diesel powered hatchbacks.

Extraordinarily cheap Chinese imported motor scooters are also very popular for getting about, especially with teens and twenty somthings. Easy to dodge through traffic and park in old town centers with mediaeval road layouts never designed for the car.

I drive a 6 month old Citroen C3 Diesel - a compact 4 seater hatchback - which with a very light foot (too many Spanish drivers are nutters so it pays to drive defensively) , driver only, no luggage gives me almost exactly 50mpg per US gallon. Mixed urban and suburban driving.

Bas · **Posted:** Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:40 pm

1.50 Euro for 1 liter Euro unleaded here in Holland.

There doesn't seem to be any signs at all of physical shortages in Europe.

DantesPeak · **Posted:** Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:38 am

Any Brits know about this?

Quote:

Exxon: Most Of UK Fawley Refinery Shut Temporarily Post-Fire

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 25, 2007 10:29 a.m.

LONDON (Dow Jones)--ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) temporarily shut most of its Esso Fawley Refinery and ExxonMobil Chemical manufacturing sites in the U.K. Wednesday after a fire was extinguished there earlier, said the company.

"We are conducting an assessment of the impact of the incident on product supply. However, currently there is no immediate impact on supplies available for our customers. The fire has had minimal impact on our ability to distribute products by pipeline, road and ship," said ExxonMobil in an e-mailed statement.

The Fawley refinery has a capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil a day and is U.K.'s largest, located in the south of England. It is operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso.

The fire started Wednesday at around 0730 (0630 GMT) and was extinguished at 0840 local time. No injuries were reported, the company said.

"We are currently working to stabilize operations across the refinery and apologize to our neighbors for any concerns caused due to the increased level of flaring," ExxonMobil said.

The company said it had informed the U.K. Environment Agency and Health & Safety Executive and was carrying out an investigation into the cause of the fire.

"We are working to resume normal operations," ExxonMobil said.

DJ/WSJ

DantesPeak · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 2:55 pm

Quote:

France Releases 285,000 Tons Crude From Strategic Stks

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
November 1, 2007 2:27 p.m.

LONDON (Dow Jones)--France has released 285,000 metric tons of crude oil from its strategic petroleum reserve, a spokesman from the French finance ministry said Thursday.

The country has taken action as a result of a short-term scarcity of crude oil and products, spokesman Jean-Marc Plantade said.

Cold weather, a hike in consumption and "tensions" in the crude oil and heating oil markets drove the government to release stocks, the spokesman said.

Plantade said oil product supplies in the country had become more scarce due to planned maintenance at two major refineries in France.

Total SA's (TOT) 116,000 barrel a day Feyzin refinery is partially shut for a 7-week maintenance period. The company's 331,000 barrel a day Gonfreville plant was shut for partial maintenance on Sept. 3, and its Oct. 15 restart was thought to have been delayed by several days.

The government hopes "that the maintenance work will be over soon," Plantade added.

France's strategic petroleum reserves in 2005 totaled approximately 65 million barrels, according to IEA data.

DJ/WSJ
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Permanently_Baffled · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:42 pm

Diesel now at roughly £1.00 or $2.08 a litre in my area (south of england near the aforementioned Fawley refinery! - see DP's post)

Its just cost me $108 to fill my Ford Mondeo!

Now then , where did I leave my bike....

dukey · **Joined:** Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:00 am **Posts:** 2245

part or most of that is tax
the government upped the tax on petrol .. like 6 months ago, but it didn't come into effect until recently.

bl00k · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:58 am

http://www.pzc.nl/internationaal/binnen ... 094133.ece

Link is in dutch, so i'll try to translate:

Quote:

Diesel shortage around the corner
Oil-traders and gasstations in the Netherlands and Belgium are struggling to get their hands on some dieselfuel. Insiders say large oildepots in Roermond, Venlo, Wageningen, Cuijk and Geertruidenberg are already empty.

....

Gasstations aren't completely run out of diesel yet, "but it shouldn't take much longer, gasstations usually have around a three or four days worth supply in storage", said Pieter Peeters, director of the Van der Sluisgroup in Geertruidenberg, the biggest independent oiltrade of the Netherlands.

Oiltrader Frans van Rijswick in Roermand says the problems all started when two big refineries in the Netherlands and Belgium started doing maintenance at the same time and when a third got production problems.

...

Peeters says there is no reason to panic, but the the situation is very serious. "The whole circle of production and delivering oil is so close cut, that there's pretty much no room for mistakes. Plus the fact that tradinghouses in the port area try to store as less as possible because they are waiting for better times."

This is the first time some type of fuel shortage has reached the Netherlands as far as i can remember (which is no more than 5 years

)

Leanan · **Joined:** Thu May 20, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 4673

UK Coryton refinery at half output after fire

Quote:

Swiss-based Petroplus said on Friday output had fallen to nearly half its usual level at its refinery at Coryton in southen England, which was hit by a huge fire two days ago.

The company added that it would take up to a month to resume full operations at the refinery, which has a capacity to process 220,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

pup55 · **Joined:** Wed May 26, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 4447

IC Wales

Quote:

SOARING fuel costs will send protesters onto the streets of Britain unless the Government takes action, a veteran campaigner warned yesterday

.

Quote:

Mr Williams said that as a Conservative he respected the right of companies to seek a profit, but described the prices British consumers were expected to pay as “indefensible”.

The natives are getting restless

Leanan · **Joined:** Thu May 20, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 4673

France is suffering shortages of diesel and heating oil, and possibly Belgium and Luxemburg as well.

Le Post

It's in French, but Babelfish and a French person at TOD provided this translation:

Quote:

The reasons for the shortage (official answer) :

- A refinery down in Normandy for more or less expected heavy maintenance, but it's taking longer than expected (and Leanan posted the link about the refinery maintenance at Feyzin, Lyon)

- A new norm about sulfur content in heating oil

- High demand because of the cold weather

- People doing exactly the opposite as refiners: they think the price is going to skyrocket and so they order their heating oil to lock in the what they think is still a low price

Time expected for recovery : a few weeks or more.

Leanan · **Joined:** Thu May 20, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 4673

The French fishermen are continuing their protest against high fuel prices.

The fishermen expand protests in the West

It's in French, but running it through Babelfish reveals that they are blocking fuel depots.

Quote:

To maintain the pressure, 300 fishermen, according to the police force, met as of 5h on the commercial port from Brest (Finistere) and 150 per same hour in Lorient (Morbihan) to prohibit the accesses of the crude oil reserves there.

The deposit of Douarnenez (Finistere) also was blocked.

It was French fishermen and truckers protesting high fuel prices that resulted in that craziness in the UK a few years ago. Gas stations dry, store shelves empty, and an angry mob chasing the prime minister.

idomar · **Posted:** Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:15 pm

Leanan wrote:

The French fishermen are continuing their protest against high fuel prices.

The fishermen expand protests in the West

It's in French, but running it through Babelfish reveals that they are blocking fuel depots.

Quote:

To maintain the pressure, 300 fishermen, according to the police force, met as of 5h on the commercial port from Brest (Finistere) and 150 per same hour in Lorient (Morbihan) to prohibit the accesses of the crude oil reserves there.

The deposit of Douarnenez (Finistere) also was blocked.

It was French fishermen and truckers protesting high fuel prices that resulted in that craziness in the UK a few years ago. Gas stations dry, store shelves empty, and an angry mob chasing the prime minister.

Here is an in English version Reuters UK

Once the french get going, they tend to gather momentum, next the lorry drivers will join in, i think they did last time. They know they can cripple the country, and the UK by locking the ports.

This could get serious, very quickly

Leanan · **Joined:** Thu May 20, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 4673

Thanks, idomar. I posted the English version to the front page.

Europe Fuel Shortage Reports

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