How much of Britain's oil and petrol does Grangemouth supply?

Grangemouth is the UK’s third-biggest refinery, processing about ten million tonnes of crude a year — or about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of total national capacity. It produces 900 million litres of fuel annually.

While the refinery is crucial to the supply of fuel in Scotland, there is no reason why its temporary closure should have any impact beyond the far North of England.

Where will fuel come from while the refinery is shut?

A lot of fuel is lying in stock at Grangemouth and other regional Scottish depots such as Aberdeen.

Other large UK refineries such as Fawley in Hampshire, Ellesmere Port on the Mersey and on Humberside continue to operate as normal and are capable of taking up some of the slack from Grangemouth.

Other big refineries across the North Sea such as Pernis in Rotterdam, Europe’s largest, or in Antwerp could also supply additional cargoes of fuel if necessary.

However, if Grangemouth remained closed for an extended period, there could be difficulties bringing supplies to the Scottish market because cargoes would need to be imported via the port terminal next to the refinery.

Will there be fuel shortages?

The closure has already led to limited fuel shortages in some parts of Scotland because of panic-buying. Demand for fuel there has risen by up to 50 per cent this week. However, the industry says there is plenty of fuel to go round and that petrol stations that have run out are being restocked fairly quickly.

There is no reason why there should be significant supply disruptions much further South.

Why does the North Sea pipeline have to close, and what knock-on effects will that have?

Power and steam from the Grangemouth refinery are essential to operations at the nearby Kinneil processing plant, where crude oil from the Forties pipeline is stabilised by removing sulphur and extracting gas.

If these basic utilities cannot be supplied to keep Kinneil running, the pipeline will have to close meaning oil and gas production from the Forties sector of the North Sea also has to stop.

The Forties pipeline supplies 700,000 barrels of crude per day, 35 per cent of UK production of around 2 million barrels.

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