London petrol stations: ‘We have no idea when we will get more fuel’

Petrol station bosses in London have said they have “no idea” when they will get any more fuel, LondonWorld can reveal.

Multiple garages across the capital have closed after running out of petrol, and did not know when they would be able to reopen.

This is likely to further concern workers, many of whom have been unable to work due to the fuel crisis.

Three petrol stations told LondonWorld today, that they had no idea when more fuel would arrive.

The manager of the BP station in Stanstead Road, Forest Hill, explained that it had run out both diesel and petrol.

He said: “We have no idea when we will get any more fuel, we haven’t been told anything.”

The BP in Cambridge Heath, Tower Hamlets, also did not have any fuel and said it was left in the dark.

“We don’t know when we will get petrol, there has been no communication,” it said.

And the BP in Acton Green, Chiswick, also said that it had “no idea” when it would receive more petrol.

Numerous petrol stations across the city told LondonWorld they had run out of fuel.

Reporters witnessed some garages shut in front of them.

The fuel crisis has been caused by a shortage of HGV drivers.

Some lorry drivers moved back to their home countries after Brexit, while training was suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

It is estimated that the UK is short of 100,000 HGV drivers.

This has meant it has taken longer for petrol to get to stations, which has been exacerbated by huge queues of people filling up their tanks in a panic.

Many garages have brought in £30 or £35 limits on how much petrol people can buy.

Chaos has broken out at some petrol stations, with reports of a man pulling a knife out to keep his place in the queue.

Several of the country’s fuel suppliers have now issued statements on the current situation at forecourts, however none could confirm how many petrol stations had run out.

Tesco confirmed it is experiencing “temporary outages in a small number of areas”, but it insisted it is not “rationing” fuel.

A spokesperson added: “We have good availability of fuel, and we’re working really hard to ensure regular deliveries to our petrol filling stations across the UK every day.”

A BP spokesman said: “We are experiencing fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites.

“This is being caused by a shortage of qualified drivers.

“The majority of the 1,200 sites we supply remain supplied and open.

“However, at the moment we estimate that 10 to 15% of sites in this network currently may not have one grade of fuel or another.”

Shell said: “We are working hard to ensure supplies for customers.

“Since Friday we have been seeing a higher-than-normal demand across our network which is resulting in some sites running low on some grades.”

And Morrisons added: “It is a rapidly moving situation and we are working hard with our suppliers to ensure we can continue to keep our pumps open and serve our customers.”