Britain’s 33 million motorists have been urged by Downing Street not to ‘panic-buy’ fuel as tanker-drivers prepare to launch a four-day strike from Friday.
As a new crisis loomed, ministers invoked emergency powers to keep fuel flowing and stop forecourts running dry in the face of the strike by militant £38,000 a year drivers who supply up to 1,000 Shell filling stations across the UK.
Fuel rationing could be imposed on motorways and in isolated rural areas - to prevent drivers becoming stranded on major highways or in the countryside if fuel stocks run low.
Drivers would then be limited to a £20 fill up to prevent breakdowns on major motorway routes.
Ministers are urging drivers to buy fuel as normal - pointing out that a rush to the pumps would only create the very short-term shortages motorists want to avoid and drive record fuel prices even higher.
Fuel will also be prioritised for ‘essential users’ including the police, emergency services, hospitals and the armed forces.
Oil bosses at Esso say their drivers ‘will cross picket lines’ to keep forecourts supplied - a move which could lead to confrontation on the forecourts.
The ‘don’t panic’ plea from Government comes as record diesel prices are poised to soar through £6 a gallon and the world’s biggest gas producer Gazprom warned crude oil is set to skyrocket to $250 a barrel ‘in the forseeable future’.
It peaked last week at a fraction under $140.
The growing fuel crisis increases the pressure on Gordon Brown to abandon a planned 2p a litre duty hike in October. Fuel protesters say many hauliers and farmers will support the striking tanker drivers.
More than 650 members of the Unite union employed by two firms working on Shell contracts are set to walk out from 6am on Friday until 6am the following Tuesday in a pay dispute which could hit one in 10 filling stations across the UK.
The union Unite has warned that its members have the capacity to ’seriously disrupt’ supply of petrol. There is also the threat of secondary picketing which means other petrol stations could be affected. One Union source said:’This will bring petrol forecourts to a halt and picket lines will not be crossed.’
The highly volatile combination of restricted fuel supplies, soaring oil prices, and record forecourt prices has led to intense nervousness in Whitehall.
Oil bosses who have been stock-piling supplies in advance of the strike have warned that they will cross picket lines to make deliveries.
Karen Dickens, Esso’s executive director for fuels marketing in the UK & Ireland, told a conference in Sutton Coldfield: ‘The haulier provides drivers for Shell and Esso. If the dispute is not resolved, we hope drivers will be prepared to go through picket lies to maintain supplies. We have been building stocks in the terminal to make sure their is sufficient product. We have contingency plans to make sure the right stock is on site.’
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said contingency plans were in hand to minimise disruption - using new emergency measures which suspend the normal rules of competition between rival oil companies. He said: ‘We believe that this strike is unnecessary and we would want to ensure that nothing was done that inconvenienced the public.
“But the most responsible thing the public can do is to continue to buy as normal.”
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said it was ‘inevitable’ that some petrol stations would run out of fuel if the industrial action went ahead.
‘If the strike were to affect other retailers it would have a more significant impact.’ he added.
More…
* Thousands of British tourists face chaos as Spanish truckers strike starts to bite
* Motorists plan forecourt boycott as diesel nears £6 a gallon and AA condemns ‘rip off’
Last-ditch talks aimed at averting the strike are to be held with the conciliation service ACAS at a secret location on Wednesday. But if they fail, ministers want to avert a run on the pumps.
Chris Hunt, director of the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UK PIA) has pointed out that the UK’s 30 million cars could store in their full fuel tanks about three times as much fuel as the oil industry could keep in its own storage tanks:”If everyone fills up at once, you can see a week and a half’s fuel stocks soaked up in just one day.’
That is why panic at the pumps can become a self-fulfilling prophesy - creating the very shortage conditions that those filling up are trying to avoid.
There are also fears the strike, affecting only Shell filling stations and 10 per cent of supplies, could widen or escalate with ‘flying pickets’ blockading other filling stations.
Government concern is that the strike will spark a run on the pumps generally as drivers fill up ‘just in case.’
Diesel prices hit a new record high of £130.33p a litre (£5.92 a gallon) on Tuesday. Petrol is a record 116.9p a litre (£5.31 a gallon). The AA is furious and says Britain’s motorists have been ‘ripped off’ because a recent 10 per cent drop in the wholesale price of diesel was not passed on to motorists at the pumps: ‘Now oil prices are soaring again, and so is the price of diesel.’
The tanker strike was announced after hauliers Hoyer and Suckling failed to reach agreement with the union in a pay dispute on Thursday. The union says ‘profiteering’ Shell is pulling the strings.
Hoyer director Bernie Holloway said it was ‘disappointing’ that Unite had rejected an improved pay offer worth 6.8 per cent which would see average drivers’ pay up to ‘around £39,000.’
Business Secretary John Hutton said: ‘I do not believe a strike can be justified.’
The Government is suspending key elements of fair trading laws to allow the rival oil companies to share information. So if an area runs short of stocks, tankers could be sent in urgently to swell supplies and ease shortages.
The tactic was used successfully in Scotland during the recent strike at Grangemouth refinery in April. Now it is being rolled out across the whole of the UK.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘The Government is working with the wider fuel industry on what could be done to reduce any disruption to the public and business.
“There are established procedures in place and these were recently used to good effect in Scotland during the Grangemouth dispute.’
A special ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ in force between the Government and the fuel industry since Friday June 6 - and agreed with the Office of Fair Trading - allows the normal competition rules to be suspended.
If this fails to prevent a run on the pumps, the Government can invoke the full ‘National Emergency Plan for Fuel’ - which includes the introduction of fuel rationing and supplies prioritised for ‘essential users’ such as police and the emergency services.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman urged a settlement adding: ‘We do not believe that any strike action is justified because that would disproportionately impact on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the country not involved in this dispute.’
On potential panic-buying he said: ‘We want the public to continue to buy as normal so as to avoid creating problems that might otherwise not exist.’
Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said: ‘Shell have 72 hours to start focusing on avoiding the disruption this will cause to the general public, who are already mindful of the staggering profits Shell rakes in.’
Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan said: ‘The unions are being utterly irresponsible - their action will have a massive impact on the very people they claim to represent.’
Tuesday’s intervention by Downing Street while unusual, highlights the degree of concern and nervousness at Prime Ministerial level.
Meanwhile fuel protesters in the UK are planning a new protest on Saturday.
Truckers are set to protest in the West Country along the M5, M4, and M32 Avon ring-road.
Andy Hardwell from Avonmouth and Bristol-based AN Hardwell Haulage Ltd, a veteran of the 2000 fuel protests said: ‘The tax on fuel is too high. The strike draws attention to the whole issue. There are protests all over Europe.’
Peter Knight of the fuel protest group ‘Transaction’ said:’I think that if there were a strike by tanker drivers, a lot of hauliers would support them and even join them on the picket line.’
AA spokesman Luke Bosdet criticised the strike: ‘Motorists are sick to death of being used as pawns in industrial disputes. Any sympathy there may have been for those involved simply evaporates.’
The AA said the cost of filling a 50-litre Mondeo sized car has risen in a year by £9.93 for petrol and £16.45 for diesel. The extra monthly cost for a two-car owning family is £42.57.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said:”The Government is very mindful of the needs of the emergency services should there be any needs arising out of this strike.
Related Posts
Stumble it!
