Like I said, Its nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. If the M1 was closed it would be much worse. The entrances and exits for about 4 miles are closed but the main carriageway is open, but thats no good for me.

Drove through the countryside to get to work expecting that it would be hell, but not that bad really, quite nice. The fire is spectacular covering a vast area but the flames are not that high (compared to yesterday morning).

A bit of panic buying so some petrol stations are empty/low on fuel but I get the impression that its not the case countrywide (maybe its in areas where the smoke can be seen makes the problem seem far worse). During the fuel protests the queues were much much longer.

As long as nobody dies I think the blast could be a good thing (touch wood) as it will raise awareness of the issues.

Where's the evidence that market is 'thin'? We may not be looking too clever regarding natural gas this winter but I haven't seen anything to suggest a petrol/paraffin problem. Can you post some numbers to back up your prediction?

5%? So instead of having ~60 days supply in storage (I believe IEA ask members to keep 60 days) we have 57 days? And remember the daily rate of production from refineries is completely unaffected.

The unasked question is, "how long will it take to restore the (apparently blurry) functions that were done by this facility?" What were they doing there? Just storing and redistributing? Blending?

From all the reports, it seems of "hunky dory, no problems with or without this depot". I have a hard time believing that Texaco runs a multi-million pound facility that isn't rather necessary to their business.

If 5% of Leaf's hysterical diatribes against the UK were true, it would still be BULLSHIT.

The discussions about the UK this winter (many actually started by me!) have been about natural gas and by association electricity. I haven't seen anything to suggest any difficulties regarding petrol or aviation fuel - please show me where you are reading about a shortage of oil products.


The key point here is 'storage'. The UK is still able to manufacture exactly the same amount of product today as last week. We have storage to protect against a problem at a refinery that would limit the daily production rate. The loss of this facility has two problems - firstly we now have slightly less protection against the loss of refining capacity so if a refinery was to go bang tomorrow we would be more vulnerable and secondly the logistics of getting fuel to the nearby airports and petrol stations will have to be changed. The first point is extremely unlikely and the second point is easy to workaround since there isn't any shortage of fuel it's just a couple of hundred km from where it's meant to be!

Your extreme, ill-informed and negative response to this short term event only suggests to me that your long term analysis for the UK is equally extreme, ill-informed and negative. It's easy to make predictions a long way into the future since they can't be tested. Short term predictions can be.

This depot has a capacity of 70 million litres but was only half full yesterday. Several of the tanks survived. about half of the fire has now been put out. Don't let exagerations of a dramatic blaze cloud clear thinking.

Please don't think this is hysterical or anything, its just an observation of whats happening and NOT meant as a doomsday prediction.

I work to the West of Hemel Hempstead, the wind has changed and now the smoke has drifted right over our building (Well right over Chesham where the office is).

The size of the plume is dramatic but we can't smell the fumes anymore.

There are helicopters flying around it (press I presume) and it is an impressive sight.

The firefighters were worried that the heat of the blaze might vapourize the foam but this has not been the case. Good work.

Those firefighters are the real heroes of our culture. Say what you want about 9/11 or Chernobyl, or this tragedy. Those guys (and gals) are the ones who save lives or die trying.

This is so Ironic , I just filled up the car for the cheapest for ages, 84.9p a litre!

WahooOoOo!

Please don't accuse me of living in "La La Land UK" or suggesting everything will be "honkey Dorey". Have you read my website? I think you'll find it suggesting anything but!! A few articles I have written you may find interesting:

Bad News For UK Energy
UK Energy Price Increases
UK Energy Part 1: The Winter Outlook
UK Energy Part 2: 2005 Quarter 2 Update
UK Gas and Electricity Crisis Looming

I am perfectly aware of the situation facing the UK but I also have a good understanding of the magnitudes involve which allow me to read the same media reports of this incident as you did and conclude that it is virtually irrelevant.