LONDON --Workers at INEOS' 200,000bbl/day refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland, held a rally on Sunday to mark the beginning of a two-day strike over pensions.
INEOS has shut down the refinery along with two crackers, and has declared force majeure on polyethylene, polypropylene and butadiene.
"It's a sad day for Grangemouth and we reiterate that this strike should not have happened," said INEOS spokesman Richard Longden.
"We are asking for a period of reflection so we can get the plant started first thing on Tuesday at seven, start the facilities and get it up and running to full capacity as soon as possible," he said.
The closure has forced BP to shut the Forties oil pipeline, as the site feeds power and steam to its gas separation plant at Kinneil a hub for North Sea oil processing.
The pipeline supplies the UK with 700,000 bbl/day of liquids from about 70 oil fields in the North Sea. June Brent crude surged more than $3/bbl ahead of the strike to reach around $117.50 late on Friday.
Industry body Oil & Gas UK estimated that the shutdown would cost the country 50m per day. On Sunday, its chief executive Malcolm Webb again called for the government to intervene in the dispute.
"The government must not relent in its action to get the two sides in this dispute to restore power, steam and water to Kinneil as soon as possible," Webb said in a statement.
"Furthermore and without delay, we urge the government to broker an agreement between INEOS and Unite that will ensure that any continuation of the dispute at the refinery will not have the same secondary impacts on businesses unconnected to the industrial action."
Around 65,000 tonnes of extra fuel, enough for 10 days supply, was being shipped in from Europe in a convoy of tankers, the Scottish Government announced late on Saturday.
Some petrol stations in Scotland were running dry but this was due to panic buying rather than a shortage of supplies, the Scottish Motor Trade Association said.
"There's petrol stations, or filling stations rather, running out of fuel on a fairly regular basis throughout Scotland just now, and it's giving the public the impression that there is a fuel shortage," its chief executive Douglas Robertson told the BBC News website.
"And really what we really need to emphasise is there is no shortage of fuel, it's just people that are buying too much, that are panic buying," he said.
Around 1,200 were on strike over plans to end the final salary pension scheme for new workers. Unite plans to continue industrial action on Monday.
Talks through the conciliation service Acas broke down as the union rejected an offer from the company to take the proposals off the table for three months of discussion, according to INEOS.
The company said the refinery would be kept on "warm stand-by" during the strike period enabling them to get it back to full capacity within two to three weeks.
INEOS has shut down the refinery along with two crackers, and has declared force majeure on polyethylene, polypropylene and butadiene.
"It's a sad day for Grangemouth and we reiterate that this strike should not have happened," said INEOS spokesman Richard Longden.
"We are asking for a period of reflection so we can get the plant started first thing on Tuesday at seven, start the facilities and get it up and running to full capacity as soon as possible," he said.
The closure has forced BP to shut the Forties oil pipeline, as the site feeds power and steam to its gas separation plant at Kinneil a hub for North Sea oil processing.
The pipeline supplies the UK with 700,000 bbl/day of liquids from about 70 oil fields in the North Sea. June Brent crude surged more than $3/bbl ahead of the strike to reach around $117.50 late on Friday.
Industry body Oil & Gas UK estimated that the shutdown would cost the country 50m per day. On Sunday, its chief executive Malcolm Webb again called for the government to intervene in the dispute.
"The government must not relent in its action to get the two sides in this dispute to restore power, steam and water to Kinneil as soon as possible," Webb said in a statement.
"Furthermore and without delay, we urge the government to broker an agreement between INEOS and Unite that will ensure that any continuation of the dispute at the refinery will not have the same secondary impacts on businesses unconnected to the industrial action."
Around 65,000 tonnes of extra fuel, enough for 10 days supply, was being shipped in from Europe in a convoy of tankers, the Scottish Government announced late on Saturday.
Some petrol stations in Scotland were running dry but this was due to panic buying rather than a shortage of supplies, the Scottish Motor Trade Association said.
"There's petrol stations, or filling stations rather, running out of fuel on a fairly regular basis throughout Scotland just now, and it's giving the public the impression that there is a fuel shortage," its chief executive Douglas Robertson told the BBC News website.
"And really what we really need to emphasise is there is no shortage of fuel, it's just people that are buying too much, that are panic buying," he said.
Around 1,200 were on strike over plans to end the final salary pension scheme for new workers. Unite plans to continue industrial action on Monday.
Talks through the conciliation service Acas broke down as the union rejected an offer from the company to take the proposals off the table for three months of discussion, according to INEOS.
The company said the refinery would be kept on "warm stand-by" during the strike period enabling them to get it back to full capacity within two to three weeks.
