Saturday, 9 September, 2000, 19:02 GMT 20:02 UK Protests trigger first fuel shortages

Fuel shortages are taking hold at some petrol stations as oil refinery blockades in England and Wales start to bite. Shell, BP and Sainsbury's and Tesco supermarkets have all reported supply problems as protestors vent their anger at rising fuel prices.

The situation is not critical, it's not likely to become critical Ray Holloway, Petrol Retailers' Association

But retailers have sought to calm the situation amid reports of panic buying, saying a fuel crisis is unlikely.

The blockades come as Europe's finance ministers appealed to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to reduce prices ahead of their meeting in Vienna on Sunday.

The biggest UK protest has been at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, where two oil refineries run by Texaco and Elf have been blocked by around 50 lorries since Friday.

Blocked roads

Workers on Saturday morning were forced to enter the depot on foot as protesters including members of the public, farmers, taxi drivers and coach operators blocked road access.

Shell Oil's Stanlow refinery at Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire, and a petrol distribution depot at Avonmouth near Bristol are also being targeted.

Shell warned that 20 to 30 stations in the North West would run out of petrol "imminently" as a result of the Stanlow protests, while Sainsbury's said two of its 223 petrol stations had already run out of fuel.

Tesco in Bidston Moss on the Wirral reported it had run out of petrol, while cars queuing for petrol at a Tesco in Allerton were causing traffic problems.

'Businesses will suffer'

But Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers' Association, said that 30 or so filling stations out of 1,200 in the region did not mean Britain was running out of petrol.

He told BBC News Online that companies were coping with the situation by using supplies from other refineries.

"The situation is not critical, it's not likely to become critical," he said.

Texaco's Pembrokeshire refinery is blockaded by lorries "Remember, most of the transport industry protestors are owner-drivers and their businesses will suffer if they don't go back to work next week."

Milford Haven protester Mike Greene, who runs a family haulage business in Llanelli, west Wales, said: "We will have to wait and see what happens before we decide how long we are going to stay here.

"We may not be stopping many tankers coming in or out but we are still making our presence felt and getting our message across."

Panic-buying

Panic-buying has seen some Sainsbury's petrol forecourts selling up to 30% more fuel in the last few days, a spokesman said.

BP had warned that one in seven of its 140 petrol stations in the North West were running short but later said most had been restocked with only a "handful" left empty.

Managers at Texaco's Milford Haven refinery are said to be unconcerned by the blockade as most of the seven million gallon daily fuel output is pumped out by pipeline.

In France, the main truckers' and farmers' unions have called on their members to call off the dispute.

The government in Paris, which offered to cut diesel tax earlier this week, has refused to offer any more concessions to the protesters.

Right to protest

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been visiting Liverpool, close to Ellesmere Port, for two engagements despite earlier reports he had cancelled to avoid fuel price protests.

Aides denied the claim and said the cancellations were down to "extra Government commitments".

Drivers say rising fuel prices will drive them out of business Shadow Transport Secretary, Archie Norman, has defended the right to peaceful protest against high fuel prices.

Mr Norman said demonstrators, while he sympathised with them, should direct their protests at the government.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I cannot condone direct action. I feel the person to be protesting at is Gordon Brown and the government, not the oil refinery."

The protests could be spreading to Ireland next week after the Irish Road Haulage Association, which represents 1,200 of Ireland's 4,000 truckers, announced protests on Friday and the following Monday in support of its claim for a reduction in fuel duty.

In a statement the 15 European Union finance ministers said: "The current level of oil prices is a source of major concern."

"Oil prices need to return to a level that preserves worldwide growth."

French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius, who chaired the EU talks in Versailles, said he hoped Opec would decide at their meeting in Vienna on Sunday to bring down oil prices, which have tripled since December 1998.

He warned that failure to do so could undermine the global economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_918000/918105.stm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 09, 2000

Answers

Now It's The Brits' Turn

British Follow French Lead And Blockade Several Refineries Like The French, They Want A Reduced Fuel Tax Ellesmere, West Wales Refineries Blockaded By Truckers

LONDON, Sept. 9, 2000 AP A British trucker stages a sleepy protest outside a Shell refinery. (CBS) Like the French, British truckers are now blockading refineries in several spots throughout Great Britain, inspiring panic buying of gasoline and clogging roads.

Protesters demanding lower fuel prices maintained scattered blockades of British refineries Saturday, and gas stations began to feel the pinch of supply shortages and panic buying.

Protesters, apparently inspired by massive demonstrations in France, are pressing the government to reduce fuel taxes, now the highest in Europe.

There were protests at five sites  two in Wales, two in Bristol and one in Cheshire  and Shell said 30 of its stations in the northwest had run dry. As CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton reports, the protests even blocked the Chunnel, the underwater tunnel connected France and Great Britain.

British residents who pay an astonishing $5 per-gallon were getting fed up.

"I think the British have stood by for too long and have just taken what's fed to us. There comes a point when the man in the street, or the public in general have to say enough is enough," said one British driver.

Sainsbury's supermarket chain, which sells gasoline, reported panic buying and a 30 percent increase in fuel sales.

Dozens of tanker trucks stayed in their oil depots, due to blockades or managers' decisions it was not safe for their drivers.

Police arrested two men following an altercation between demonstrators and a tanker driver outside a Shell refinery in Ellesmere, northwestern England, where protesters began a blockade on Friday.

"The tanker was coming out of the premises and for whatever reason there was an altercation," said Inspector Russell Barnes of Cheshire police.

The 35-year-old tanker driver for attempted assault and a 21-year-old man for damaging the tanker.

Blockades at Texaco and Elf refineries in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, prevented workers from driving to their jobs, but they were allowed to walk through.

The Texaco protesters, with about 50 trucks, were joined by farmers, taxi drivers and coach operators.

Britain has the highest fuel taxes in Europe, with tax accounting for 74 percent of the retail price.

"What we want to see is fuel prices the same across the board as in Europe. We are fighting for our livelihood here," said Eifion Jones, a truck driver from Carmarthen, Wales.

Archie Norman, speaking for the opposition Conservative Party, said he sympathized with the protests but argued that they should not be directed at refineries.

"I feel the person to be protesting at is (Treasury chief) Gordon Brown and the government, not the oil refinery," Norman said in a BBC radio interview.

Scottish Secretary John Reid, speaking on the same program, said that recent hikes in fuel prices reflect the soaring price of crude oil, up from $11 in 1998 to $34 currently.

Fuel prices have gone up 27.5 cents per litre in the past two years, and most of that was due to the higher price of crude, Reid argued

http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,231711-412,00.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 09, 2000.

Fuel prices at $5 per gallon, with 74% of that being taxes, are "off the wall."

Crazy! Stupid! Unbelievably short-sighted. It's said the Tony Blair government has upped fuel taxes every time there was a crude oil price drop, to scoop off extra revenue for their social programs.

Now this malfeasance of government is coming back to haunt them.

-- Jack (jpayne@webtv.net), September 09, 2000.

I don't see why these truckers don't just park their rigs in protest, and wait it out. What can possibly be gained by creating mayhem?

-- LillyLP (lillyLP@aol.com), September 09, 2000.