Here's an article from the BBC that is an update of Martin's article.

Fuel drought as blockades end

Many garages are still only selling fuel to the essential services

Motorists are being warned it could be up to two weeks before petrol supplies return to normal levels despite the ending of blockades at refineries around the UK. As tankers started leaving refineries, some oil companies announced they were putting up their prices.

But hours later one company, Esso, dropped prices again, following a meeting with Tony Blair -where he urged them to reconsider. TotalFinaElf also made a U-turn on price rises.

Some protesters had threaten to reimpose their blockades when the news of a hike in the price of unleaded petrol and diesel was announced.

Esso said it recognised the timing of the planned rise of two pence on a litre of unleaded petrol and four pence on diesel had been regrettable.

Refuelled forecourts Esso: 70 out of 1,620 BP: 300 out of 1,500 Shell: 228 out of 1,100 TotalFinaElf: 136 out of 1,400 "In the spirit of the present efforts by everyone to restore supplies we are now taking steps to reduce prices back to the level they were before the market moved," a statement read.

Mr Blair had expressed his dismay at the proposed price rise.

"The world oil price has come down in the last few days as far as I'm aware," he said at a Downing Street press conference.

On Thursday evening, protesters at Purfleet in Essex voted to end their blockade, one of the last groups of demonstrators to do so.

Deliveries begin

The oil industry says it hopes to have 20% of the country's petrol stations re-supplied within 48 hours.

Although tankers have begun leaving most of the refineries, oil companies have warned it could be weeks before supplies at the pump are back to normal levels.

Shell has 150 of its 175 tankers on the move and says it is trying to put on extra shifts and is paying overtime to increase petrol deliveries.

A tanker leaves an oil refinery in Essex They are aiming to make 250 deliveries on Thursday as opposed to a normal daily delivery total of 650.

BP said they had delivered 180 loads of fuel compared to 875 in a normal period. They said supplies would not return to normal for two to three weeks.

All of Texaco's 80 or so tankers are back on the road. It estimates it will be 10 to 15 days before things return to normal.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said Army tankers would begin to deliver fuel to essential services.

Although many garages across the country have fuel supplies, many are only selling it to "essential services".

Panic buying

Many supermarkets are reporting a shortage of bread and milk as shoppers continue to resort to panic buying.

Some stores say it could be until the middle of next week before stocks are replenished.

The fuel shortage is also beginning to affect public transport with some bus companies restricting routes as they are affected by diesel shortages.

The NHS remains on Red Alert and many hospitals have been forced to cancel operations.

The world-famous Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge was restricting admissions to emergencies only on Thursday.

In Edinburgh, Lothian Buses cancelled services on Thursday evening but said they hoped to resume normal services on Friday.

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), September 14, 2000