Irish Oil supply in the long term threatned by Topaz takeover of Esso

andrewdeerpark

News today that Topaz is taking over the Esso (Exxon) oil petrol stations and distribution of the other ones not owned by Esso.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/topaz-to-take-over-38-petrol-stations-from-rival-esso-30831816.html

This is extremely worrying, let me explain Topaz is not an oil company with any oil wells as such, its merely a company that buys oil from the global oil market, one person in the oil market said to me they are 100's of tankers sailing our oceans at any one time and countries bid on their oil they land their cargo where the sale is agreed. Ditto Maxol, Applegreen

This is all fine in the current market where oil supply is not an issue however their will come a day of scarcity again, at this point those countries with their own oil and / or distribution companies with actual oil wells will have preferential access to oil supplies.

When Esso (Exxon remember) leaves the oil market we will be left with no oil company that owns actual oil wells, Statoil, Shell, BP long gone.

I hope the regulator blocks this takeover as we need at least 1 company that actually owns oil reserves and it remains in this country.

Macha

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

News today that Topaz is taking over the Esso (Exxon) oil petrol stations and distribution of the other ones not owned by Esso.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/topaz-to-take-over-38-petrol-stations-from-rival-esso-30831816.html

This is extremely worrying, let me explain Topaz is not an oil company with any oil wells as such, its merely a company that buys oil from the global oil market, one person in the oil market said to me they are 100's of tankers sailing our oceans at any one time and countries bid on their oil they land their cargo where the sale is agreed. Ditto Maxol, Applegreen

This is all fine in the current market where oil supply is not an issue however their will come a day of scarcity again, at this point those countries with their own oil and / or distribution companies with actual oil wells will have preferential access to oil supplies.

When Esso (Exxon remember) leaves the oil market we will be left with no oil company that owns actual oil wells, Statoil, Shell, BP long gone.

I hope the regulator blocks this takeover as we need at least 1 company that actually owns oil reserves and it remains in this country.

Thanks, although I'm still not sure why this is a problem. Oil is a global market, if scarcity increases, the price goes up and those who can pay it will get the oil.

Why did a supplier have to own oil wells, and anyway many existing oil wells are almost expired (eg North Sea). In the power market, EU policy has been to explicitly unbundled upstream and downstream (to use oil-related language) to improve competition, reduce barriers to new entrants and help keep prices competitive. Why should oil sector be any different?

qt3.14

Strategic oil supply isn't really guaranteed by having a foreign oil company operating fulling stations anyway. If there was a massive contraction of supply if imagine national priorities would take over.

dusty207

I'm more worried about pricing. In my experience Topaz are way more expensive than Esso so will Esso prices now rise as a result?
Presume so.

ted1

Is the closer of whitegate not more worrying?

stehyl15

andrewdeerpark wrote: »

News today that Topaz is taking over the Esso (Exxon) oil petrol stations and distribution of the other ones not owned by Esso.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/topaz-to-take-over-38-petrol-stations-from-rival-esso-30831816.html

This is extremely worrying, let me explain Topaz is not an oil company with any oil wells as such, its merely a company that buys oil from the global oil market, one person in the oil market said to me they are 100's of tankers sailing our oceans at any one time and countries bid on their oil they land their cargo where the sale is agreed. Ditto Maxol, Applegreen

This is all fine in the current market where oil supply is not an issue however their will come a day of scarcity again, at this point those countries with their own oil and / or distribution companies with actual oil wells will have preferential access to oil supplies.

When Esso (Exxon remember) leaves the oil market we will be left with no oil company that owns actual oil wells, Statoil, Shell, BP long gone.

I hope the regulator blocks this takeover as we need at least 1 company that actually owns oil reserves and it remains in this country.

Texaco (Chevron) owns oil wells and its very much in the irish market

Markcheese

ted1 wrote: »

Is the closer of whitegate not more worrying?

Philips 66 have taken it off the market - I think their agreement to refine in Ireland runs out in a year or so - can't see them agreeing to keep refining in Ireland without some of massive state payout-and would that be legal -