54 oil tankers are anchored off Britain coast waiting for fuel price hikes

Daily Mail UK
November 20, 2009


More than 50 oil tankers are anchored off Britain - pieces in a game in which the only winners are market speculators.

The losers are the millions of British motorists paying over the odds for their petrol and diesel.

After yesterday's report in the Daily Mail on how several so-called 'oil shark' tankers were moored near the Devon coast, dozens more vessels were revealed to be loitering off-shore.

Some are carrying aircraft fuel or fuel for homes. Others are empty, waiting to be restocked before setting off around the globe.

But according to industry experts, a significant number are 'oil sharks' - tankers that have been cynically told to wait for crude prices to be driven up before they unload their cargo.

With values soaring on the international markets, fuel made from their oil is unlikely to appear on a petrol station forecourt any day soon.

Paul Watters of the AA said: 'Tankers are off the UK coast and also off the U.S. They are acting as storage tanks. As always, motorists are the victims in this. They are at the end of the food chain.'

The Daily Mail has learnt that 54 tankers are anchored around the British Isles.

Six are off the Essex and Kent coasts, five are moored in Lyme Bay, while four are lurking next to the Isle of Wight.

But the biggest fleet - around 30 ships - lies around ten miles from Southwold, Suffolk in the only waters around the UK where ship-to-ship transfers of oil are allowed.

They come from as far afield as Malaysia, Liberia and Singapore - and include 1,000ft vessels capable of carrying more than 300,000tons of oil.

Fuel prices soar as oil tankers refuse to unload until prices rise even higher
Fuel prices are at highest point for a year as supermarkets charge more than oil giants

Locals in Suffolk watched with growing anger over the summer as more and more tankers dropped anchor.

Southwold mayor Susan Doy said: 'It is wrong that tankers should be left off our coast for reasons of profiteering. Ordinary people are left to suffer as petrol prices go up.'

Andrew Reid, of ship owners and managers Charles M Willie & Co, said the flotilla off the Devon coast, pictured in the Mail yesterday, was 'a drop in the ocean compared to the much bigger fleet full of crude oil off Suffolk'.

He added: 'They are all just waiting there for the price of crude oil to rise, enabling huge profits to be taken. If all this crude were to be delivered there would doubtless be a fall in the crude price and petrol prices.'

Southwold Tory councillor Simon Tobin said: 'There have been ship-to-ship transfers of oil going on off the coast here for around 15 years. But there began to be a huge increase in the number of these tankers around seven months ago.'

'We are massively concerned. These tankers are treating the coast like a car park while they wait for the right time to take their oil to shore. There is nothing to stop them staying here as long as they like. There might be a catastrophic oil spillage which could ruin our beautiful coastline.'

Small tankers bringing oil from Russia often use the spot to transfer their cargo to larger vessels. Others drop anchor there while waiting for business because it is cheaper than tying up in a port.
The price of a barrel of oil has risen from $40 to $80 over the last year. It is expected to soar even further over the next few months as the world eases its way out of recession and demand rises.

The supply of oil is strictly controlled by producers and owners - to ensure that prices remain as high as possible.

In the course of its journey from wells to the refineries, a barrel of oil may be bought and sold by different traders many times on the international markets.

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1229337/Petrol-prices-Oil-tankers-loitering-British-coast-lie-wait-price-hikes.html
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My solemn meeting on Veterans Day with President Obama at my friend's resting place in Arlington


BY James Gordon Meek
Daily News
November 12th 2009


ARLINGTON, Va. - He didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to.

President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.

This was Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn't there as a reporter, but to visit some friends and family buried there when Obama made an unscheduled stop - a rare presidential walk among what Lincoln called America's "honored dead" - after laying a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

What I got was an unexpected look into the eyes of a man who intertwined his roles as commander in chief and consoler in chief on a solemn day filled with remembrance and respect for sacrifices made - and sacrifices yet to be made.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just another Obama photo op.

If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

I had stopped at Arlington to see the resting place of Ken Taylor, Ed Lenard and Dave Sharrett. Ken and Ed survived their service, in World War II and Korea, and died as old men. Dave did not leave Iraq alive. He was 27.

Obama arrived just before noon at the serene Section 60, where many of the dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried together - and where many more heroes will undoubtedly be laid to rest before this President leaves office.

It's a section typically bustling with those visiting loved ones. Every time I go there, more and more graves have been dug into the earth.

The President and First Lady Michelle Obama emerged from their armored limousine hatless in the frigid downpour and took a slow stroll into the soggy rows of white marble headstones.

They stopped first at the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Ross McGinnis, an Army private who threw himself on a grenade in Iraq three years ago to save four buddies.

A sad-faced woman reached for Obama's hand and pointed him to a nearby plot.

The face of another woman - who had grimly sat in a folding chair for hours next to a headstone she'd arranged flowers around - suddenly broadened into a smile as she stood to embrace Obama and thank him for paying his respects.

She was so overcome with emotion that a soldier from the Army's Old Guard had to console her afterward.

The President patted backs of a dozen other Gold Star relatives and troops visiting buddies now in the ground.

He gave hugs. He shook wet, chilly hands. He wanted to know something about each fallen warrior.

He began to slowly trudge back toward the motorcade - and to another White House huddle with his war council, which is advising him whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops into harm's way in Afghanistan.

And then Obama noticed a tall, bearded figure. He probably didn't see the mud-caked combat boots I trudged around Afghanistan in a few years ago.

"What's your name?" a somber President asked as he extended his hand.

"James Meek, sir," I replied, struggling to pull off my wool glove and pull my hood back from my head. "I'm here visiting a friend, Pfc. David H. Sharrett II, who was killed in Iraq last year."

He asked how I knew Dave. I explained that his father, also named David, was my high school English teacher in nearby McLean, Va. My classmates and I knew Dave as a little boy playing at our feet.

"He became a star football player and was one of the toughest soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division," I told Obama.

I didn't tell the commander in chief that Dave was killed by friendly fire. Or that the Army bungled notifying Dave's parents of a probe that concluded his lieutenant tragically mistook him for a terrorist in the dark and shot him. Or that his family had to fight for accountability - which two battlefield commanders promised but stateside generals derailed.

That wouldn't have been appropriate, Dave's deeply grateful father later agreed.

"Well, we appreciate his service very much," Obama told me.

I then told him I'm a reporter for the Daily News - but was just there to visit friends.

"Well, James," he said, looking me in the eye, "just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you can't honor your friends here."

The First Lady smiled and squeezed my hand. I thanked her for coming to Section 60.

Her face opened up into a smile filled with warmth and comfort, a welcome antidote for the weather and sadness around her. She said there was no finer place to be on Veterans Day.

Ironically, I was ready to leave the cemetery an hour earlier, but it went into lock down because of Obama's visit.

"Sorry for any inconvenience," a terribly polite Secret Service agent whispered in my ear.

As the Obamas ended their pilgrimage through Arlington's hallowed ground, inconvenience was hardly what I felt standing there as the rain pelted my coat, staring at blades of grass around a headstone etched with a name and a date I will never forget.

Source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/12/2009-11-12_my_solemn_surprise_meeting_with_the_president_at_my_friends_resting_place.html
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Huge propane cavern leaking, neighbors offered relocation

This looks bad for Carbon Capture Storage


October 19, 2009
Barnesville Herald-Gazette


(Georgia) Low levels of propane have been detected in soil and water samples taken on and around the site of a huge underground gas storage cavern near Milner and some residents nearby may be temporarily relocated.

The cavern, owned by Enterprise Propane Terminals & Storage, is located 340 feet underground and holds 220,000 barrels or 9.24 million gallons of propane.

Enterprise is emptying the underground facility in order to further study the situation.

Three above ground tanks at the location contain an additional 90,000 gallons of propane each.

The company detected the leak while testing on its own property.

Subsequent tests on a few neighboring properties have also been positive.

Source:
http://www.barnesville.com/archives/1462-Huge-propane-cavern-may-beleaking;-neighbors-offered-relocation.html
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Police arrest 21 people at UK coal plant protest


October 17, 2009
Reuters


(International) Police clashed with environmental activists and arrested 21 people during a day of protests at a coal-fired power station in central England on Saturday.

While hundreds joined a largely peaceful demonstration outside the main gates of German utility E.ON’s plant in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, scuffles broke out around the perimeter fence when smaller groups tried to break through in an attempt to close the power station.

One policeman was flown to hospital with head injuries after being hurt while trying to keep people from entering the plant.

Protest organizers said several demonstrators suffered minor injuries. Nottinghamshire Police said officers were attacked during “concerted efforts to tear down perimeter fencing and enter the site.” Camp for Climate Action, the environmental campaign group behind the protest, said some of its members needed treatment for bruising and dog bites.

An E.ON spokesman said the plant would continue to operate as normal unless protesters enter operational areas.

“We have increased security and got extra fencing and we are working very closely with police,” he said, adding that E.ON is investing heavily in wind power and has plans to close other coal-powered stations. The protests were due to continue on Sunday morning.

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE59G1SU20091017
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BP fined $87m for Texas explosion


October 30, 2009
BBC


(Texas) British Petroleum has been fined a record $87m (£53m) for failing to correct safety hazards at its Texas City refinery in the U.S. An explosion in 2005 at the Texas plant killed 15 people and injured 180 more.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited 270 violations at the oil refinery, a U.S. Labor Department official said.

BP said it believed it was in “full compliance” with a 2005 settlement agreement with OSHA and would work with the agency to resolve the issue.

The $87m fine is the largest in OSHA’s history.

In 2005, BP paid a $21.3m fine to OSHA and entered into a four-year agreement to repair hazards at the Texas City refinery, which is the third largest in the U.S. The latest fine follows a six-month inspection into whether BP had complied with that agreement.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8334310.stm
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