OK, rough math...

60 million gallons of fuel possibly destroyed...the US uses 20 million a day and England's consumption is far less like maybe 10% of what the US uses.

Wouldn't this be the equivalent of about 20 days worth of fuel for the UK? Not to mention they have been shipping much of their reserves to the US. If my guesstimation is close that seems pretty serious to me.

How will this not cause shortages and a large price spike?

All though the actual fuel source of the explosion is different the signature of this event is similar to the Flixborough disaster.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/sragtech/ca ... roug74.htm

The fact that the initial explosion was so much bigger than any of the subsequent blasts suggests it was not a terrorist attack because an explosive device detonating liquid fuel tanks would have probably not have had that immediate impact unless the bomb itself was huge. I was in London when the IRA blew up Bishopsgate with a lorry packed with ammonium nitrate and though the bang was big it was not heard three counties away. It is much more likely that this blast is some form of vapour cloud explosion. I am sure that the maintenance records of this plant over the past few months would make for some interesting reading

But all was not gasoline, some where oil and kerosene.

Should still have quite an impact on the supply. Is it really that fragile? The next days will be exciting. A peek into peak oil.

Torjus Gaaren

Leaf is doing his usual panic thing..The police and others have been on all morning saying do not panic buy, it's not a problem.

It’s the smoke and travel delays seem to be the worst:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4518500.stm

Road delays. Major road shut.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/trav ... avel.shtml

Bit of disruption at Heathrow

http://www.heathrowairport.com

Rail seems ok

http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ld ... aspx?T=LUT
http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ld ... aspx?T=HML

Only 12 panic buying days until Christmas

How many days of gasoline does the UK store? How quickly can it be replenished through refining and imports? If the refinery capacity already is maxed, they may have a problem. At least for a while.

Torjus Gaaren

Loads of fuel...This depot is quite small compared to some and there are 100s of others. At the big refineries in Stanlow, Teeside, Milford Haven and humberside and Fawley there are millions more, plus pipelines in from Europe. Heathrow has other supplies from Fawley and other links to Humberside.

It isn't that fragile, it's not even a big deal no-one was even killed, it just happened to make a loud bang and about 20 million people could here it if they kept their ears open at 6am this morning.

It was the loudest bang I've ever heard, can't imagine what it sounded like to people in Hemel.

I think we'll have a mojor problem for a week, not because of the fuel lost, Wildwell is right on that, but there are queues of people at petrol stations here in Luton, I expect its the same everywhere. I'd like to call them all stupid but I've been keeping my car above half full since Katrina, so I'm just as bad.

A report on tv from a tanker driver who had arrived to fill up before the explosion witnessed a white mist. He added the plant electrics appeared to be shut down and then was told to run by a site supervisor after a covering a short distance the first explosion occured.

Maybe someone who knows about these installations could possibly have some explanation to the 'mist' description.

The tanks that are on fire are apparently petrols and diesel. A number of other tanks close by with aviation fuel are currently not affected. This location is an important link in the chain of supply to Heathrow and Luton airports.

It appears at this time to be an accident but at an earlier police conference all possibilities are still open.

According to BBCNews24, people have been hearing Leaf rubbing his hands together with glee, as far away as Orpington.

320,000,000 litres no big deal , eh??

I did some simple math, based on the assumption that this quantity was all gasoline (I know it wasn't) I drive about 300 km a week commuting, getting groceries, etc. My car burns about 50 litres of fuel in 500kms of driving, and I get maybe 350 kms in the dead of winter (it's really cold in Canada) So lets say I am averaging 425 kms per 50 litres (a full tank), or 35 litres per week of driving.

This amount of fuel multiplied by 9.14 million drivers driving one week like I do equals the volume of fuel (if it was all gas) lost in the explosion.

Nah, that's no big deal at all.

Drew