Almost 40% of Ireland’s forecourts are without fuel as public warned not to panic buy

LAST UPDATE | 51 mins ago

AROUND 600 FORECOURTS were without fuel this morning as blockades at fuel terminals around the country have disrupted supply.

CEO of Fuels for Ireland Kevin McPartlan told The Journal this afternoon that the small number of fuel trucks that have gained access to the oil refinery at Whitegate in Co Cork after a four-day blockade will do little to alleviate shortages.

Around 20 trucks are expected to stock up at the refinery today rather than the usual 200.

Elsewhere, blockades at fuel terminals at Foynes in Co Limerick and at Galway Harbour continue and are adversely impacting supply. McPartlan said these terminals have an important regional role and their blockade has led to more severe shortages in the west of the country.

He said unless the three fuel terminals are reopened fully, “we’re looking at about ten days away from fully recovering from this”.

Galway harbour 

In Galway, a tanker with about 6m litres of fuel has sought to land at the port since yesterday morning but has not been allowed to dock due to the port’s blockade.

The company involved with the ship, CircleK, is paying a “substantial” hourly rate for the ship to remain anchored as it waits for clearance to land.

The protesters in Galway have blocked the emergency access and exit from the terminal, making it a criminal offence for the tanker to unload the fuel.

“That’s something we flagged to the gardaí last Tuesday when the protest first arrived at Galway – they did nothing about it, honestly. But the gardaí have now told us that they’ve agreed with the protesters that that vessel will dock this evening,” McPartlan said.

He said this cannot be totally guaranteed but if vehicles are moved and emergency access to the site is returned the vessel can be unloaded.

Shortages are more intense in the west of the country, which McPartlan said is the direct result of Galway harbour being the first fuel terminal blockaded. Foynes was blockaded on Wednesday morning and Whitegate on Wednesday evening. 

Recovery

On an average day in Ireland, there would be about 800 fuel trucks moving in Ireland from Dublin, Foynes, Whitegate, and Galway. Yesterday, about 200 trucks were out from Dublin.

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“That’s about half its normal rate,” McPartlan said. “Even though Dublin isn’t blockaded, the issue is the traffic around Dublin, the different restrictions, road closures.”

With the trucks beginning to gain access to Whitegate, he said, “So now we’ve gone from 200 to maybe 220.”

He said when the number of trucks was at 200, it would add two to three days to the recovery period for forecourts to regain normal stock levels. 

“If we have 24 hours more where we’re only getting 20 trucks out of Whitegate, then our best case scenario – best case scenario being everything reopens and everyone gets to full capacity straight away again – it is 12 days recovery.

“If we continue for a couple of days only getting 20 trucks out of Whitegate, what we’ll get at that stage is that we cannot guarantee fuel anywhere.” This would potentially happen by Tuesday morning.

A temporary derogation of driving hours for hauliers transporting fuel has been approved by the Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien to allow for “reasonable flexibility for drivers and businesses to keep supply chains moving”, balanced with safety and driver welfare.

In a statement, the Department said he had “approved a temporary derogation from certain driving hours and rest period requirements for road hauliers transporting liquid fuel used for home heating oil or as a propellant within Ireland”.

This increased the daily driving limit for these drivers from 9 hours to 11 hours two times per week; the maximum weekly driving limit is increased from 56 hours to 60 hours; the fortnightly driving limit is increased from 90 hours to 102 hours.

This applies from today, 11 April, for an initial period of eight days.

Panic buying

The number of fuel stations experiencing a wipeout in stock will grow “quite dramatically” as shortages at some forecourts will incur panic buying at others, putting further pressure on stock.

Shortages in Dublin are the result of panic buying, he said. On Thursday, some sites in Dublin were selling four times the amount of their normal volumes of fuel – “that’s pure panic buying”.

He urged people that do not need fuel at the moment to “just pause” and allow filling stations “a few days to recover” their supply.

There is “loads” of fuel in Ireland, he said, but it is being blocked into the terminals.

“If you don’t need fuel immediately, please wait,” he said. “Don’t buy it now. We need to make sure that fuel remains available for essential services at the moment.”

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