“oh, and not to mention....typical tardy reorting from the GET, the strike has been suspended to allow talks to resume:
http://tinyurl.com/7tz2jje”

“sensetalka
I did try being polite in my response to your first post.......but................................
I can only assume your name is a stab at irony, because your other post is talking no sense whatsoever, now with your second post I'm afraid you sound like you really dont have a clue what you're talking about.
Yes refinery margins are at a low, granted. But one of the many things that puts the Humber refinery a VERY stong position in, not just this country, but globally is the coking plant....you obviously are blissfully unaware as to what the margins are on that, the fact is some of the purest grade coke is shipping out of there worldwide every single day.
Not to mention the Benzene that gets shipped along with the Propylene......trust me, I could go on and on......in a great deal of detail.
This is on top of the fact that it is the most complex refinery in Europe,is capable of refining low grade crude oil that other refineries in this country cannot process and is ackowledged within the industry as one of the strongest performing refineries, its going nowhere.
With regards to Petroplus, I think you'll find that Coryton is now refining again, the trouble with Petroplus is that they are a relatively small player in terms of oil refining. As a consequence of this they had trouble raising capital, this has now been addressed.
Not sure how you arrived at you other statement where you say that you could build a new refinery in india or china for the price of maintaining and operating HOR for 2 years? please, can you go into some substantiated detail? that I would love to see.
Finally, where do you think there is 10% more refining capacity in the UK to support the fuel supply of this country if your prophecy came about?
Behave”

“Yes lets all use the economic crisis to put the workers down again, and yes lets all work for 20 rupees an hour. So why is it that energy giants who are making vast profits can ,in this climate of unemployment and negative growth put up their prices by 21% . Not even a whimper about it. Then the water authority shove their 6% on top , way above inflation .Cant seem to kick start the economy or put any jobs in the offering, so I tell you what lets take away workers rights and give them all a good pay cut.”

“Smokebelch, I agree in part. Conocco would not shut the refinery based on this one incident. But... Forget volumnes for one second and think of margins.We all know European refining margins are at an all time low with many refineries actually losing money, consider the escallating tensions between EU and Iran which will inevitably drive up crude oil prices, look at the situation Petrolplus has recently found itself in, note how more and more people are using their cars less, put that together along with our governments Environmental legislation which is effectively taxing CO2 producers by an extortionate amount for every tonne produced. Conocco is an ageing plant and the shear costs involved in running and maintaining it for a year or 2 could buy a new refinery in India or China where we've seen far too many traditionally resident British companies shift operations.

People have got to get out of the mindset that they are somehow immune to the global economic downturn and they can demand extortionate salaries (especially in a very poor region economically like Grimsby) because they work as some part of the oil supply chain, to do that is just plain stupid and short sighted.

There's no wonder we've lost so much industry from the UK when the Indians will work 4 times as hard for 1/5th the wage and probablly have never heard of the word strike! Let's stop throwing our toys out the pram and try and make the UK competitive again because this one action might and probablly wont cause the closure of the refinery, it's just another reason that companies are leaving and hardly no new companies will consider starting up here.

And for half their wage which would be 22.5k there'd be a queue as long as the A180 to drive a truck for that, I can guarantee it.”

“read it again ,they don't want more of anything ,they are trying to keep what they have, fools talk if you think that you don't need to be educated to do that job, its a job that needs a lot of experience,and intelligence, but its the usual thing called sour grapes! these guys chose their careers and chase the good money, sacrificing a lot of things most people take for granted,they deserve good pay .Unless you know anything about this kind of work i suggest you keep quiet, as i know a lot about the tanker industry and the fish processing business,one thing i can say is you don't have to be in a fish factory for ever,get yourselves a license, and have a go at driving, i did, and if they halve my wages i will go back to factory work with no responsibilities, or i could apply for a job as a surgeon at the hospital, i would do their job for half the pay, and i'm not bad at sewing either! and now its even easier, Ive discovered wonder Web!!!”

“sensetalka
conoco shut your refinery?.....are you real? have you ANY idea how much leaves that refinery compared to how much those drivers take out?.....obviously not.
About 30% of the fuel refined leaves the refinery by road, of that 30%, only about 20% of that is taken by wincantons....do the math

Although I do agree fully with the rest of your comment and the comment from securityeye, I'm afraid this dispute would never end in Conoco shutting the refinery down”

“If the unions reps are after money and so called benefits for there so called fellow workers why don't they give up there extra pay the union pay that puts them on about £56,000, I don't know how many union reps there are at Immingham but that money would go a long way to give the working drivers there a pay rise. that they don't need.
If they don't watch out they will loose all the drivers there jobs.

Call for another vote and actually ask the drivers do they want to stay on strike or return to work and earn a wage not tell them they are striking”

“Nice week for a strike boys... Think you need to get a grip myself and take a reality check. Unemployment is rife, only this week Kerry Foods announced 300+ job losses in the area i'm sure 90% of those workers would do your job for half your wage just as well. I mean come on, you drive trucks, it's not as though you need to be educated to any real standard or work in back breaking manual labour jobs. Get back to work, before Conocco just get fed up and shut your refinery costing our region even more jobs !!”