MORE than 3,000 petrol filling stations, a third of the total in Britain, ran dry yesterday after motorists ignored assurances that there was no danger of refineries being blockaded.

Some garages took advantage of the panic-buying to raise prices to well over £1 a litre. The Petrol Retailers Association condemned profiteering and reminded its members that they risked being shunned once the panic subsided.

The association also predicted that average pump prices would fall by 2p or 3p a litre next week because of the drop this week in wholesale prices. This means that motorists who panicked and filled up before they would normally have done so have each wasted about £1.50.

Ray Holloway, the association’s director, said: “The irony is that if people had heeded the warnings not to panic, they would have saved themselves some money.”

Masood Meah, owner of Nad Petroleum on the Stockport Road outside Manchester, said he was raising prices last night by 8p to 108p litre. “I’m the only one that’s got fuel from here to the city centre — that’s seven miles away. It’s supply and demand.

“I’m also rationing by only giving drivers a maximum of seven litres unleaded or five litres diesel. Our next delivery is not till Monday.” Roshan Weerasinjhe, who runs a BP station on North Anderson Drive, Aberdeen, said: “We’ve put about 2p a litre on leaded and unleaded so far. There’s a worry that things are going to get pretty bad so we’ve got to try and hang on to our supplies as best we can.”

Diesel at Madgi Service Station in Fairfield, Liverpool, reached 120.9p a litre before protests from drivers forced the owner to lower prices. Chelsea Cloisters garage, off Sloane Square, London, was selling unleaded for 119p.

Mr Holloway said: “It’s critical that our members do not seek to profit from the situation. This forecourt industry already has an image problem, not of our own making. Let’s not give people a reason to attack us.” He said that half of the 3,000 stations that ran dry would be restocked today. Most of the remainder would receive supplies tomorrow or on Friday.

“After all this panic-buying, most people are now driving around with full tanks, so the queues at stations will begin to go down. However, some silly people keep revisiting just to top up with £2 or £3.”

The Energy Saving Trust advised drivers to save fuel by staying well under the speed limit on motorways. Driving at 70mph uses up to 30 per cent more fuel than at 50mph.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party spokeswoman for the London Assembly, said the high fuel prices were “just a warning of what is to come when the world uses more oil than we can possibly produce. In a few years’ time, £1 a litre for petrol will seem like the good old days. We should be preparing for the future, and that means ending our addiction to oil”.

The Association of British Drivers called on the Government to waive the “tax on tax” levied on fuel by charging VAT on fuel duty. At today’s average of 96p a litre for unleaded, the Exchequer would earn an extra £635 million a year in VAT compared with last year.

But the Treasury said it had already forgone £12.6 billion in the past five years as a result of freezes in fuel duty. Each year’s freeze costs about £600 million in annual lost revenue.

The soaring cost of petrol and oil was the main factor behind a further rise yesterday in the Bank of England’s main measure of inflation to its highest since January 1997.

Inflation on the consumer prices index climbed to 2.4 per cent in August, taking it still further from the Bank’s 2 per cent target set by the Chancellor.

A LITRE OF UNLEADED?

HIGHEST

London
Total, Sloane Avenue 119p
Esso, King’s Avenue Brixton 105p

Manchester
Nad Petroleum, Stockport Road 108p

Surrey
Reigate Heath Garage, near Reigate 108p

LOWEST

London
Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco Extra in Beckton all 90p

Manchester
Cheetham Service Station, Waterloo Road 89p

Lincolnshire
Tesco, Westbridge Centre, New Hammond Beck Road, Boston 89.9p

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