Monday, Dec 12, 2005
Motorists were urged to avoid panic-buying of petrol after the country's fifth largest oil depot was mostly destroyed by a huge explosion yesterday.
Oil companies were scrambling to find alternative ways to supply customers served by the Buncefield oil terminal in Hertfordshire, which include Heathrow and Gatwick airports as well as many petrol stations in the north London area.
However, officials said any disruption would be minimal and called for restraint after long lines formed outside some local filling stations.
Total, the French oil company which owns the terminal jointly with ChevronTexaco, said: "We can expect some disruption (to supplies) but we have got contingency plans to cover supply to the terminal and also to our end-users - our customers."
Buncefield is one of three main terminals supplying oil products to the Greater London area. It is served by pipeline from Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincoln-shire, Shell's Stanlow refinery on Merseyside and BP's refinery at Coryton on the Thames estuary.
Pipelines carry jet fuel from Buncefield to Heathrow and Gatwick. However, BAA, the airports operator, said it did not expect any supply disruption as a result of the blast although flights had been delayed at Heathrow because of smoke.
BAA said: "We've no reason to believe we'll have any problem at all. We actually have on-site enough fuel for around 48 hours. Then after that we'll be able to take in fuel from elsewhere."
The British Pipeline Agency, which operates most of the pipelines on the site, said it was acting to reroute pipelines to avoid the terminal.
A BPA representative said: "I'd be lying if I said it doesn't disrupt us because it's a serious event and quite an unusual one." He said the full extent of any damage to its pipeline network would not be clear until the fire died down and an inspection could be carried out.
The complex stored petrol, diesel, kerosene and gas oil for industrial and agricul-tural use in some 26 tanks dotted around the site. The terminal can store more than 72,000 cubic metres. About 2.4m tonnes of petroleum products passed through the terminal each year, and 400 road tankers were loaded each day round the clock.
Total said fuel trucks were being redirected to other sites nearby, which included an Esso depot in west London and BP's terminal on the Thames estuary.
The UK Petroleum Industry Association said: "The oil industry continues to assess the impact of the incident at Buncefield terminal and is working together to minimise the effect upon fuel distribution.
"All nine oil refineries are fully operational. There are no problems with any other aspects of the manufacture of petroleum products or their distribution, other than at Buncefield."
The most immediate worry was that panic-buying could itself cause shortages of fuel in some areas. The self-perpetuating impact of such events was last seen in 2000, when truck drivers blockaded facilities, includ-ing Buncefield, in protest at high fuel prices.
Long queues formed at some filling stations in the region as motorists feared the fire would lead to fuel shortages. But police and petrol retailers urged drivers not to panic-buy.
Ray Holloway of the Petrol Retailers Association said: "I understand the concern of motorists but there is no need to panic."
The explosions also raised questions about the safety and security of oil facilities. Oil industry officials said there was no indication yet about the cause of the blast.
Most of Buncefield's facilities were closed systems that prevented fumes leaking, officials said. In this case, however, they might have failed, allowing highly flammable vapours to form in the air.
The industry will want to find out what went wrong quickly and work to prevent a recurrence.
Each year 75m tonnes of petroleum products are moved round the UK by pipeline, rail, ship or road. There are 43 storage and distribution terminals across the UK which supply retailers and airports - many of them near towns and cities.
The Environment Agency said it was monitoring the impact of the explosion. It said the main area of concern was the potential for pollution to ground and surface water, such as rivers and streams, and also damage to land quality.
This would only occur if any of the substances, including kerosene, diesel, gas oil and gasoline, were to escape from the Buncefield site. As yet there was no evidence to suggest that this had happened, the agency added.
By THOMAS CATAN
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005. Privacy policy.
