[Peakoil] Adelaide almost ran out of petrol

[Jenny Goldie]

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16829012%255E2682,00.html 
Petrol almost ran out

By GREG KELTON

06oct05

THE arrival of an oil tanker yesterday carrying more than 30 million litres has helped to prevent a desperate fuel shortage in South Australia.

The situation has raised serious concerns about the reliability of the state's unleaded petrol supply. Adelaide came close to running out of unleaded, with stocks dropping to critical levels.  

Another tanker is due within 24 hours with further supplies. Some metropolitan service stations have been grappling with fuel shortages since early this week and the RAA has urged motorists not to panic buy. The shortage has been blamed on long weekend fuel purchases and the delay of a tanker bringing fuel to the Birkenhead terminal from Singapore via Perth. 

Tankers usually dock every four days at Birkenhead, which has a total capacity of 100 million litres, but the Bow Puma arrived six days later than expected. Energy Minister Patrick Conlon said yesterday "if one more thing had gone wrong, then we would have had a difficult situation".  

The Government has called for talks with oil companies to ensure the threatened shortage does not happen again. All the major petrol suppliers draw fuel from the Birkenhead terminal, which normally holds enough to supply SA for between seven and 10 days. 

Since the closure of Port Stanvac, the bulk of SA's petrol supplies come from Singapore. 

No Pokies MLC Nick Xenophon said one of the storage facilities at Birkenhead had been empty of unleaded petrol since Tuesday. 

"It's time for the Government to give an ultimatum to Mobil to re-open the storage facilities at Port Stanvac (which has a 500 million litre capacity)." Mobil Oil said in a statement that supplies of unleaded petrol had been maintained, although there had been "a temporary tightness" because of the delay in a tanker's arrival. 

Mr Conlon said the situation had become "far, far too tight" because some of the oil companies had not been using all the available storage capacity. 

He is asking the oil companies to explain how they will prevent this happening in the future. 

Opposition Leader Rob Kerin said the Government should work with the oil industry to find a solution to the storage problem. 

RAA spokesman Hamilton Calder called for a review of current storage arrangements in SA. 
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