The Prime Minister is considering whether to send in the Army to deliver fuel to petrol stations, with pumps running dry after days of panic buying, reports say.
There have been suggestions for days that soldiers could be enlisted to help ease the crisis, which saw competition laws for the fuel industry suspended on Sunday evening.
That move by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will allow suppliers to target filling stations running low.
But the problems are widespread enough that various reports suggested Boris Johnson will on Monday look at whether the Army should be asked to drive oil tankers to keep Britain running.
There are concerns that with around 90% of stations running dry, key workers and emergency vehicles could be hit.
Experts say ‘frenzied buying’ added to fuel supply issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers – worsened by Brexit and Covid – have contributed to the problems.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps refused to rule out requesting military assistance on Sunday, after queues for the pumps continued across the country at the weekend.
Mr Shapps has already backed down on a previous refusal to import foreign labour to solve the HGV driver shortage by creating 5,000 three-month visas to bring in temporary foreign drivers.
The Cabinet minister told the BBC the move would fix the ‘100 to 200’ fuel tanker driver shortfall, as he urged motorists to be ‘sensible’ and only fill up when needed.
Long waits at filling stations saw police called to a scuffle at a north London forecourt.
The panic buying came after concerns from BP were leaked to the media that the lorry driver shortage could impact its ability to keep up with fuel deliveries.
The surge in demand led the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) to warn that as many as two-thirds of its membership of nearly 5,500 independent outlets were out of fuel on Sunday, with the rest of them ‘partly dry and running out soon’.
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Worry over depleted stocks led the Business Secretary to act following a meeting with oil companies and retailers on Sunday.
Invoking what is known as the Downstream Oil Protocol, Mr Kwarteng said: ‘While there has always been and continues to be plenty of fuel at refineries and terminals, we are aware that there have been some issues with supply chains.
‘This is why we will enact the protocol to ensure industry can share vital information and work together more effectively to ensure disruption is minimised.’
Meanwhile, the industry again reiterated its views that pressures on supply were being caused by ‘temporary spikes in customer demand, not a national shortage of fuel’.
PRA chairman Brian Madderson – who described the purchasing rate as ‘frenzied’ – told the BBC the forecourt closures and depleted pumps were down to ‘panic buying, pure and simple’.
He said priority was being given to motorway service stations, with one such stop-off point reporting a 500% spike in demand compared to last week.
Amid widespread problems with the wider supply chain, 5,500 foreign worker visas will also be made available to the poultry sector in an effort to make sure turkeys are available for Christmas dinners.
But retailers warned that the decision to relax immigration rules to fix supply chain issues was ‘too little, too late’.
Mr Shapps said visas were ‘only one element’ of the Government’s relief plan, as he admitted efforts to rebuild the domestic freight workforce could take years.
The Army has already been drafted in to provide extra HGV driving tests to reduce the backlog caused by lockdowns.
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