'Worst to come' as petrol stations start to run dry

The director of Shell's haulage company said fuel stocks were low and hinted there was not enough time to replenish stations before Friday's next planned strike.

Unite union bosses and Shell representatives were due to meet today to thrash out a deal aimed at ending the pay dispute.

Bernie Holloway, of Hoyer UK, one of two haulage firms employed by Shell to deliver fuel to forecourts, warned that an overtime ban imposed by the union would escalate the crisis, with successive strikes causing greater problems.

He said: "I have no doubt it will get worse. We only have three days to replenish supplies before another strike starts.

Stock levels will already be below where they were at the start of the dispute."

Shell stations at Fulham Cross, Bow and Crouch End have already run out of supplies, as motorists ignored warnings from the Government and oil companies not to panic buy.

Other companies were also affected as people rushed to fill up their cars.

Texaco said between 30 and 40 of its stations across the country had run out of some sort of fuel, while Esso also reported stock problems.

BP said demand was high and that it was monitoring the situation closely.

A Shell spokesman said more than 700 filling stations, including 249 of its own, had run out of at least one type of fuel. The figure is expected to rise as the 600 picketing drivers are not set to return to work until 6am tomorrow.

The spokesman said: "We have received more reports of our service stations' stock running out of either petrol or diesel fuel. With another day of strikes still to come it is inevitable that in time we will continue to see more difficulties with supply."

James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, said: "We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to any of our customers as a result of industrial action. We hope there will be a resolution soon."

The AA said it was too early to judge whether the strike would lead to a "motorist Armageddon" for London.

The dispute is over pay, with Unite calling for a salary rise of £4,200 - equivalent to a 13 per cent rise.

Forecourts across the capital today reported low stock amid fears petrol would run out soon. A worker at a Morrisons filling station in Peckham said: "We are very low on petrol. People are panic buying and the queues are around the block. We only had a quarter of our normal petrol stocks left and it was absolutely packed all weekend."

Many Sainsbury's filling stations were forced to turn customers away. A station in Queenstown Road, Lambeth, ran out of diesel on Sunday. Lower Richmond Road in Kingston ran out of unleaded and Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill and Hornsey Rise ran out of both.

Monzer Chowdhury, a worker at a Sainsbury's forecourt in Muswell Hill, said: "We ran out of diesel and unleaded on Sunday morning and don't have any information on deliveries. We will run out of everything else today."