Petrol station shortages: which London garages have run out of fuel with drivers panic buying

Londoners have reported huge queues at petrol stations and pumps running out of petrol, as drivers start to panic buy.

LondonWorld has confirmed that several stations have run out of fuel, with drivers reporting many more empty.

Cambridge Heath’s BP station, Esso in Plumstead Common Road and Mottingham’s BP garage all ran out of petrol on Friday due to customers panic buying.

During the weekend, the Esso garage in Lewisham, the Shell, BP and Esso garages, in Grove Park, south London, and the Esso garage in Catford all ran out of fuel.

On Saturday, the Shell petrol station in Blackheath ran out of unleaded petrol, while in Lee Green, the BP garage ran out of diesel and unleaded.

Today (Monday September 27), LondonWorld confirmed that the Shell garage in Western Road, Mitcham, was also out of fuel.

The Sainsbury’s petrol station, in Colliers Wood, also had “sorry out of use” signs on all of its pumps, with no staff around.

In East Dulwich, Southwark, there were huge queues for petrol on Saturday.

Although the UK doesn’t have a shortage of fuel, with problems due to Brexit and the Covid pandemic there aren’t enough HGV drivers to supply it.

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

BP and Esso have announced they’ve been forced to shut some outlets with immediate effect because they are unable to transport fuel around the country.

Many garages have brought in a £30 limit for fuel purchases and Boris Johnson is considering sending in the army to supply petrol.

And Londoners have reported petrol stations across the capital have run out of fuel.

Crime writer Ali Knight said: “I cannot ‘panic buy; petrol because all my local filling stations in London are already empty.”

Air traffic controller Andy Carn said that multiple garages in west and south London are out of fuel.

He commented: “All petrol stations are open for coffee etc, but all BPs on the A4 on the way to Hammersmith have run out of service, along with Shell in Wandsworth and Chelsea, while most BPs in Reading have little or no supplies.”

Susan Pym, from Queen’s Park, wrote: “I drove past numerous closed stations last night in North London. No fuel to be had, regardless of the government saying it’s out there. Five garages had none.”

One delivery driver, who was unable to fill up his motorbike, told LondonWorld: “There is no petrol in the entire city, the garages said there wouldn’t be any for four days.”

BP could not confirm which stations in London had run out of fuel.

A spokesperson said: “We are experiencing some fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites in the UK and unfortunately have therefore seen a handful of sites temporarily close due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades.

“These have been caused by some delays in the supply chain which has been impacted by the industry-wide driver shortages across the UK and there are many actions being taken to address the issue.

“We continue to work with our haulier supplier to minimise any future disruption and to ensure efficient and effective deliveries to serve our customers.

“We are prioritising deliveries to motorway service areas, major trunk roads and sites with largest demand and seeking to minimise the duration of stock outs.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

An Esso spokesperon added: “The majority of the 1,200 Esso branded sites in the UK are owned and operated by a number of independent retail companies – these companies are responsible for arranging supplies of Esso fuel to their sites.

“As regards our own operations, a small number of our 200 Tesco Alliance retail sites are impacted in some way.

“We are working closely with all parties in our distribution network to optimise supplies and minimise any inconvenience to customers.

“We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience.”

Editor’s note: Does your local petrol station not have any fuel? Let us know by emailing [email protected] or on Twitter or Facebook.