(Adds report on cooperation between retailers)
By William James
BRIGHTON, England, Sept 26 (Reuters) - BP said nearly
a third of its British petrol stations had run out of the two
main grades of fuel on Sunday as panic buying continued despite
the government pleading with motorists to behave normally and
insisting there was no fundamental shortage.
Lines of vehicles formed at petrol stations for a third day
running as motorists waited, some for hours, to fill up with
fuel after oil firms reported a lack of drivers was causing
transport problems from refineries to forecourts.
Some operators have had to ration supplies and others to
close gas stations.
"With the intense demand seen over the past two days, we
estimate that around 30% of sites in this network do not
currently have either of the main grades of fuel," BP, which
operates 1,200 sites in Britain, said in statement.
"We are working to resupply as rapidly as possible."
The fuel panic comes as Britain faces several crises: an
international gas price surge that is forcing energy firms out
of business, a related shortage of carbon dioxide that threatens
to derail meat production, and a shortage of truck drivers that
is playing havoc with retailers and leaving some shelves bare.
Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said that it has been
seeing increased demand across its UK fuel stations since
Friday, leading to a shortage of supplies of some grades of
fuel. "We are replenishing these quickly, usually within 24
hours," it said in a statement.
Transport minister Grant Shapps appealed for calm, saying
the shortages were purely caused by panic buying, and that the
situation would eventually resolve itself because fuel could not
be stockpiled.
"There's plenty of fuel, there's no shortage of the fuel
within the country," Shapps told Sky News.
"So the most important thing is actually that people carry
on as they normally would and fill up their cars when they
normally would, then you won't have queues and you won't have
shortages at the pump either."
The Times newspaper reported that ministers had suspended
competition rules to allow competitors to talk to each other and
target supplies at those petrol stations running out of fuel.
'MANUFACTURED SITUATION'
Shapps said the shortage of truck drivers was down to
COVID-19 disrupting the qualification process, preventing new
labour from entering the market.
Others pinned the blame on Brexit and poor working
conditions forcing out foreign drivers.
The government on Sunday announced a plan to issue temporary
visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers.
But business leaders have warned the government's plan is a
short-term fix and will not solve an acute labour shortage that
risks major disruption beyond fuel deliveries, including for
retailers in the run-up to Christmas.
Shapps called the panic over fuel a "manufactured situation"
and blamed it on a hauliers' association.
"They're desperate to have more European drivers
undercutting British salaries," he said.
An Opinium poll published in the Observer newspaper on
Sunday said that 67% of voters believe the government has
handled the crisis badly. A majority of 68% said that Brexit was
partly to blame.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, speaking at his
party's annual conference in southern England, said ministers
had failed to plan for labour shortages following the 2016
Brexit vote and called for a bigger temporary visa scheme.
"This is a complete lack of planning: we exited the EU ...
just one consequence was there was going to be a shortage of HGV
(Heavy Goods Vehicle) drivers. That was predictable, it was
predicted," he told the BBC.
(Reporting by William James and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by
Angus MacSwan and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
