Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Petrol protests

For some reasons I'm don't have much sympathy for Brad, who's been complaining about gas prices in Hawaii "spiralling" past $2.90 per US gallon.

With petrol prices in the UK edging past £1 per litre for the first time, for the metrically challenged that's $6.90 per US gallon at the current exhange rate, the threat of fuel protests this week have tipped the British public into panic buying.


I just spent three quarters of an hour queuing to fill my tank up this morning. The staff at the station where I finally managed to buy my petrol were talking about closing soon, and on the drive into work I passed several stations that had run dry entirely.

Hopefully the panic buying will stop when people realise that the Fuel Lobby aren't planning to blockade the refineries like last time. So long as the tankers keep rolling, the shortages shouldn't be too bad...

Update: According to BBC News,
...fuel suppliers have said they are struggling to cope with demand for petrol after filling stations saw a week's worth of demand in a single day.

Representatives of petrol giants said the issue was one of getting the tankers to the filling stations rather than one of supply.

It is feared predictions of shortages have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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