The Oil Drum: Europe

The sequence of events (covered here on The Oil Drum previously) that led to the Forties Pipeline closure on 27 April 2008 began in 2005 when BP, currently the UK's largest company, sold Innovene, their Grangemouth refinery subsidiary to Ineos. Ineos is privately owned petrochemicals company that has grown from nothing since its formation in 1998, fueled by debt reported to be €9 billion.

BP, once 50% owned by the UK government, used to own and operate the Forties Field, the Forties Pipeline system and the Grangemouth oil refinery. This is a tightly coupled complex system where oil from the North Sea flows by pipeline to Kinneil terminal where it is either diverted to Grangemouth to be refined and then combusted by energy hungry consumers or it is diverted to Hound Point for export by tanker (see map below the fold). The failure of any vital part of this complex system may close the whole system down. This system is now fragmented and its failure has just happened.

Failure by BP to recognise the dependency of the Forties Pipeline upon vital services provided by Grangemouth, and to provide contingency back up for their loss, is the principal cause for over 40% of UK North Sea oil and gas production now being shutdown.

Incident prone BP are of course not the only stake holder to shoulder responsibility and below the fold I explore the responsibilities of the Grangemouth Workers, Ineos, The Banks, Government and The Media in contributing to this debacle.

On Friday 22nd February, I attended the above conference in Aberdeen. With presentations from the EU Commission, The European Parliament, Scottish politicians and leading academics, this was a high profile event. There follows an account of the key issues raised by the various speakers together with my own observations and opinions on these matters.

Peter Vis

Peter is a member of the cabinet of Andris Piebalgs who is European Commissioner for Energy. He has particular responsibility for climate change targets, renewable energy and bio-fuels.....

Energy for a Changing World: a Credible EU Energy Strategy for the 21st Century Organised by the European Movement Scottish Council, this one day conference is to be held in the King's College Conference Centre, University of Aberdeen from 11:15 am to 16:00 pm. Speakers Alex Salmond MSP (First Minister) Peter Vis (special advisor to Andris Piebalgs) Malcolm Webb (CEO of Oil and Gas UK) Professor Jim McDonald (Chairman ETP) Jason Ormiston (CEO, Scottish Renewables Forum) Alyn Smith MEP (Member EU Energy Committee) Brian Wilson (former UK Energy Minister)

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond is the Keynote speaker

The conference will be chaired by Jeremy Cresswell (Editor Energy section of The Press and Journal)

To register email John Brand at:
energyconference@euromove.org.uk