Fuel Strike Fears Spark Panic Buying Across UK

U.K. police were forced to shut down numerous petrol stations across the nation on Thursday, after motorists went into a panic-buying spree – that began on Wednesday – following a strike threat by fuel tanker drivers.

According to the BBC, petrol sales in the U.K. went up by 81 percent on Wednesday, with diesel up by 43 percent, as motorists queued for hours in order to stockpile their gas supply.

U.K. police were forced to shut down numerous petrol stations across the nation on Thursday, after motorists went into a panic-buying spree – that began on Wednesday – following a strike threat by fuel tanker drivers.

According to the BBC, petrol sales in the U.K. went up by 81 percent on Wednesday, with diesel up by 43 percent, as motorists queued for hours in order to stockpile their gas supply.

On Thursday, queues at petrol stations were already beginning to form as early as 8am, with drivers seen sweeping off jerry cans off the shelves, while police had little choice but to close down some petrol stations due to the massive traffic congestion the lines had caused.

[quote]“People are panicking, they didn’t know what was going on. Yesterday, the garage here was like a roundabout. It was just a constant stream of cars,” said Anthony Johnson, a petrol station manager, to the Oxford Mail on Thursday.[/quote]

Some petrol stations also reported running dangerously low on fuel supply, as fuel and diesel prices rose to record highs with the increased demand.

Opposition politicians and numerous automobile and petrol associations have since blamed the U.K. government for ill-advised comments that may have ignited the wave of panic buying.

Although the threat of a strike by fuel tanker drivers was already cause for concern for the U.K. public, the government’s reaction – and seeming unwillingness to negotiate with the drivers – was seen as further detriment to public confidence given the already fragile global oil scenario.

Related: The Fear Premium Is Driving High Oil Prices: Nouriel Roubini

Related: The Future Of Oil Prices In 2012? It’s Anyone’s Guess

Related: High Oil Prices: Caught in a Sea of “Vicious Cycles”

On Wednesday, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude had suggested that the public “keep a bit of extra fuel in a jerrycan in the garage”, after insisting that the government would not bow to pressure from the fuel tanker drivers’ union. Maude’s comments were later withdrawn, after being condemned as potentially dangerous.

[quote]”Totally unnecessary, totally self-inflicted and quite frankly a bit of a mess,” opined Automobile Association President Edmund King, as cited by the Guardian.[/quote]

“We now have self-inflicted shortages due to poor advice about topping up the tank and hoarding in jerrycans. This in turn has led to localised shortages, queues and some profiteering at the pumps,” he said.

Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has also demanded that Maude and Prime Minister David Cameron apologize to the country for the way they had handled the issue.

[quote]”The Prime Minister is presiding over a shambles on petrol. The country is paying the price for the incompetent way he is governing,” said Miliband, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.[/quote]

But the U.K. government has instead tried to deflect criticism about the handling of the situation by trying to pin the blame on the strike itself.

“The reason why people are concerned about fuel supplies is because we have a trade union that is threatening a strike that is potentially going to disrupt those fuel supplies,” said U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in a television interview.

“The government has a responsibility to everyone in this country to take sensible contingency plans and the trade union has a responsibility to call off the threat of strike action,” he added.

UK Energy Minister Ed Davey also denied that the government was creating the panic and pleaded with citizens to “do the sensible thing” and “top up where necessary.”

The director of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation Professor Stephen Glaister also called for public calm in the situation, though he took the opportunity to land a swipe at the government’s side for “offering contradictor and questionable advice.”

“We must not turn a drama into a crisis. Drivers need to hold their nerve, and if ministers feel the need to intervene they should be banging the heads of employers and unions together to solve this industrial dispute – not offering contradictory and questionable advice to motorists which only fuels panic,” said Glaister during an interview with the Guardian.

Watch: Report Of Fuel Panic In The U.K.