Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
It could be more recent than that and be a shipment from the UK North Sea wells, but I can't see the UK sitting still for that much oil just "disappearing" from their custody. I believe most of that is piped out anyway.
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You are correct in that belief. There are a number of different pipelines. Main ones come ashore at Grangemouth (canon nuclear strike), Hartlepool (not a canon nuclear stike), Flotta in the Orkneys (not a canon nuclear strike) and Sullom Voe in the Shetlands (also not a canon nuclear strike). Grangemouth and Hartlepool are both refineries, Sullom Voe and Flotta are not - they are just a storage facility, although Sullom Voe is visited by FPSO's (Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading - a vessel that can carry out a basic separation process); tankers also visit all of them. Obviously those sites not the target of nuclear strikes may have suffered some damage from conventional air attack / EMP etc, but in my opinion the UK should retain the capability to maintain some sort of oil production.
IIRC correctly the Omega fleet (or at least a portion thereof) made a stop off to pick up US personnel based in the UK. I'd suggest it's not outwith the realms of possibility that the oil that fuels the Omega fleet could have come from the UK (I am going from memory here but iirc the oil was unrefined?). Perhaps the tanker was "abandoned" somewhere it would be found by the Americans / Germans (I can't recall who "found" it). Question is, what's in it for the British? The only thing I can think of is any USAF hardware (including aircraft) in the UK, but in canon most of the US bases are not in areas controlled by HMG, which could well scupper the whole theory.