It was pretty damn stupid. Fuel is delivered to petrol stations, not piped to it. There was a fuel crisis back in 2000 when some of our refineries were blockaded: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_pr...United_Kingdom In any case why would a pipeline supplying refined petrol be connected to the North Sea oil rigs - which obviously only supply unrefined crude - even if it did exist?
This might seem like a nitpick to some, but for me, I have no problem suspending disbelief about the weird and wonderful but I don't like obvious made-up rubbish concerning the mundane and realistic, it just feels lazy.