An article in yesterday's Vancouver Sun caught my eye as it mentioned the impending closure of two of Imperial Oil's Esso marine fuel stations used by recreational boaters and commuters in Vancouver. The stations in question are at West Vancouver's Fisherman's Cove and in False Creek; two critical locations to boat owners in the area as there are currently no other marine fuel suppliers at these locations. According to the article, the closure is causing a panic amongst boat owners, who are loading up on fuel by hand and creating a potentially dangerous situation in the process.
Initially, Imperial had planned to sell the West Vancouver station to Bruce Falkins, the current operator of the station; however, after doing his due diligence and agreeing to upgrade the oil tanks to the required "Enviro" tanks, Bruce was told that Imperial will no longer sell the station but plans to destroy it because of liability fears concerning the structure of the building. According to Bruce, in addition to the inconvenience caused by a closure, the lack of gas in these areas could be a concern to boater safety as the West Vancouver station is used by various emergency service providers. Currently, Bruce is trying to have Imperial reconsider the sale and is asking for any concerned citizens to write to Imperial asking them to overturn the decision.
Prior to this year, Imperial has sold its marine fuel stations in other crucial areas such as Victoria's Inner Harbour, Gibsons and Deep Cove, so the decision to destroy some of its remaining stations rather than selling them comes as a surprise. It would be interesting to find out what their lawyers have found to cause all of the concern and have them pay to destroy these stations.
I have put a call in to Imperial and will post the other 5 locations in this blog when/if I find out where they are. They may be sold rather than closed depending on the locations and sturctures in question.
Note:
All of this talk about closing gas stations and the panic that has ensued, got me thinking about a documentary I recently viewed regarding the future of oil production and how the lack thereof will effect us. If you're interested, you can click here to link to the movie's web site: A Crude Awakening, The Oil Crash