‘Don’t panic’ – UK motorists urged to stay calm amid fuel shortages

Forecourt petrol retailers in the UK have urged motorists not to panic about fuel availability after BP was forced to close several sites due to shortages.
BP has confirmed the temporary closure of some petrol stations after a growing shortage of HGV drivers and the ‘Pingdemic’ disrupted supply chains, leaving neither biofuel-blended unleaded or diesel fuel available.
There is currently an estimated shortfall of 100,000 lorry drivers caused by several factors including Brexit.
“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,” BP said in a statement.
“Our supply chain has been impacted primarily by the industry-wide driver shortages across the UK.
“The situation was exacerbated last week by the temporary closure for a number of days of our Hemel Hempstead fuel distribution terminal due to necessary Covid-19 isolations amongst staff there. The terminal is now operating as normal once again.”
The company said it was working with its haulage provider to resolve the issue and apologised to customers for any inconvenience.
Other large petrol retailers including Shell and Tesco have not reported any availability issues.