The UK on Monday called on its military to stand ready to come to the aid of the country's ongoing fuel crisis, after a weekend of worried Britons rushing to gas stations, leaving many dried up.

"A limited number of military tanker drivers must be ready to intervene and deployed if necessary to stabilize the fuel supply," the energy ministry said in a statement Monday evening.

Gasoline shortages worsened further on Monday, still under the effect of "panic buying" from worried motorists.

Across the country, signs "no more gasoline" or "out of service" are multiplying near gas pumps, including about 30% of the giant BP stations affected by fuel shortages.

Some British media have published videos of edgy drivers clashing near pumps for fear of breaking down or not being able to go to work.

If medical organizations are sounding the alarm on the difficulties of caregivers to travel to see their patients, some schools are considering switching back to distance education if the problem persists.

Runaway

According to the PRA, one of the associations of fuel distributors, up to two-thirds of its members (5,500 independent sites out of a total of 8,000 stations in the country), were out of fuel on Sunday, "the others almost at dry ”.

But the association says it expects "a possible relaxation of demand and a normalization of stocks in the days to come".

Monday, representatives of the sector again wanted to reassure by saying that there is "full of fuel in British refineries".

The situation is reminiscent of gasoline rationing during the energy crisis of the 1970s, or a blockage of refineries that paralyzed the country's activity for weeks in the early 2000s.

The crisis started in the middle of last week after a confidential report from BP to the government leaked, describing a few dozen gas stations closing due to lack of fuel, as a representative of the PRA lamented.

Panic buying immediately took off across the country and a majority of gas stations are now affected.

Shortages of gasoline or diesel are initially due to the lack of truck drivers to transport it from the storage terminals to the pumps.

The problem also affects the shelves of supermarkets, fast food restaurants, pubs, bicycle vendors, among others, which deplore delays in deliveries and depleted stocks of certain products.

  • Gasoline

  • World

  • UK