[Peakoil] Adelaide almost ran out of petrol

[POLLARD,Sandy]

Gotta love 'just-in-time' fuel! (well - love it while you can).
 
The questions that need to be asked are: why was the tanker 6 days late?
- and, was this delay due to global shuffling of refined product, due to
shortages following Katrina and Rita?
 
Sandy Pollard
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: peakoil-bounces+sandy.pollard=dewr.gov.au at act-peakoil.org
[mailto:peakoil-bounces+sandy.pollard=dewr.gov.au at act-peakoil.org] On
Behalf Of Jenny Goldie
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 11:38 AM
To: ACT Peak Oil discussion Oil discussion
Subject: [Peakoil] Adelaide almost ran out of petrol


http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16829012%2
55E2682,00.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. <mailto:jgoldie at snowy.net.au> 


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