It will mean huge tankers bringing the crude to Scotland to be refined and then taken to wherever it is to be sold either in China or abroad. The tanker ships will go to Finnart in Loch Long after a trip up the Clyde as Grangemouth has no facilities to take them. These will mean more work at Finnart and more work for the Greenock and Gourock tugs which will be needed to dock these leviathans and guide/nudge them back out.. A pipeline runs right across Scotland, underground, joining the two places, Grangemouth and Finnart. So the roads will not be clogged up with tanker trucks which must be a good thing. I suppose for China to start from scratch building and staffing enough refineries to satisfy their needs would take ages and it will be better for them to go into some arrangement. They will, no doubt, be studying Grangemouth very hard indeed in order to copy it themselves at home.
Grangemouth is the only refinery in Scotland. However under reciprocity agreements every body gets the same fuel with different company additives. So no matter which brand that you use in Scotland, be it Shell, B.P. or whatever you are always getting the same basic petrol and diesel. Esso have a huge storage depot in Dumbarton and run their own tanker trucks from there. There supplies also come from Grangemouth and some are shipped in, up the Clyde, to their docks.
Try this amazing site to see shipping traffic all round Britain in real time. www.shipais.com The names,type of ship,destination and dates of arriving and leaving are all given as you move the mouse over a ship. I'll put a page up to show you. There is one for aircraft movements too which has a 5 minute time lag. It works in conjunction with Google Earth and shows aircraft movements all over UK, Europe and further afield. It is at
www.openatc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment