FuelClub Discount

Talks to avoid another strike by Shell tanker drivers agree a pay deal for 641 drivers contracted to distribute fuel for Shell are to continue on Tuesday.

The drivers, employed by Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport, are to return to work from 6am today after a four-day strike - but without a pay agreement, the drivers’ union, Unite, has given warning of another four-day-stoppage from Friday.

A spokesman for Unite said: “We are still talking and I can say that we are not many miles apart.”

There are renewed fears that if the pay dispute drags on, other drivers contracted to work for other oil companies may also join in industrial action.
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Royal Dutch Shell Plc expects “significant impact” on the supply of gasoline to its service stations as tanker drivers, who deliver to 10 percent of the U.K.’s filling stations, are set today to begin a four-day strike over pay.

The Unite union, representing 641 drivers, failed to reach agreement with Shell subcontractors Hoyer GmbH Internationale and Suckling Transport Ltd., union spokeswoman Pauline Doyle said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Shell, which is not involved in the pay negotiations, said supplies to its filling stations would suffer and that it has teams working to ensure that as much fuel as possible gets through to customers.
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The walkout was announced after the collapse in talks between Unite and two companies who deliver fuel to Shell.

As a result around 1,000 forecourts could be starved of fuel unless a deal can be brokered next week by the arbitration service, ACAS.

Although Shell owns only 10 per cent of forecourts across the country, there are fears that the strike threat could trigger another wave of panic-buying.

Unite, which is representing 641 drivers working for Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport, has submitted a demand for a 13.2 per cent pay increase.
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The Australian unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it may bring forward a planned diesel import cargo to meet strong demand from miners in western Australia after an explosion cut gas supplies.

The blast earlier this week at a gas plant operated by a unit of Apache Corp (APA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has left mining companies, metals refiners and other industrial users in Australia’s most important mining region out of fuel or scrambling for alternative sources of gas or diesel to minimise the impact on production.

“We have received interest from customers to lift more diesel than their forecast demand in western Australia,” Shell Australia said in a statement.
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Shell made profits of $7.8bn (£3.9bn) in the first three months of the year, up from $6.9bn a year ago.

And rival BP saw its profits rise 48% to $6.588bn (£3.31bn), from $4.4bn.

In January, Anglo-Dutch firm Shell reported annual profits of $27.56bn (£13.9bn) for 2007, a record for a UK-listed company.

The quarterly results come as a strike by oil workers at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland came to an end.
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Using crops to produce fuel is “criminal” as the world suffers a food shortage, Venezuela’s oil minister said in Rome where energy ministers from around the globe are meeting to discuss investment plans.

“Look at the effect it has, the craziness,” Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in the Italian capital, where he is attending the three-day International Energy Forum. “All countries, and particularly in Latin America, have problems with food stuffs. It is such a bad idea to use foodstuffs for fuel, it is criminal.”

The U.S. and Europe have been encouraging the development of fuels made from crops such as corn and soybeans to limit their dependence on oil imports as prices reach a record. Biofuels are also being promoted as a renewal energy source to limit climate change.

Global food stocks are at their lowest since the 1980s, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization as food lines form in the Philippines and soaring rice prices cause riots in Haiti and Egypt. Biofuels are partly to blame for rising food prices because they displace crops that might otherwise be used to feed people or animals, oil industry officials said.

“Biofuels illustrates that in politics nothing is that easy,” U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the energy forum in Rome today.
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