An increasing number of petrol stations were running dry across Scotland yesterday, although there remained only isolated reports of panic buying.

Of 15 petrol stations visited by The Times in Central Scotland, five had been forced to turn off pumps or ration fuel, and two - both in Edinburgh - had put up signs saying that they were closed.

Most said that they were experiencing steady business, though two bucked the trend, claiming that they were having a quieter Monday than usual. Despite widespread fears of panic buying, it seemed that motorists were, for the most part, heeding appeals for calm, with none of the 15 filling stations experiencing significant queues.

After a weekend of alarmist headlines such as “Army on standby over fuel strike” and “Warning on price hikes as motorists panic-buy”, it seemed that predictions of shortages were beginning to come true, but motorists were remaining calm.

The Scottish Government said that 25 out of 956 petrol stations in Scotland were out of fuel by yesterday evening, with another 55 reporting supply difficulties. About 600 deliveries by road are expected to be made today.

Jim Ure, 50, the proprietor of the West End Garage in Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire, was the only person who even mentioned the words “panic buying”. In a normal week his small rural filling station sells 5,000 litres of fuel. In just one day over the weekend it sold half this amount.

“There's been a lot of panic buying with people filling up when they don't need to,” Mr Ure said., though he admitted there had been no queues. “We're fine for diesel but we're getting very low on unleaded petrol so we've started to ration it to £20.” We're due a delivery on Wednesday but if it doesn't come I reckon we'll be out.”

Iain Thompson, 29, a local builder who was filling his van with diesel, said: “I've been running on fumes. Most places seem to have petrol but no diesel.”At the nearby Lomond View filling station in Gartocharn, Mary McKenzie, 42, the owner, said: “It's been non-stop since the weekend. Nobody has been queueing, but normally in a day we'd do about 600 litres and I've been doing three times that.”

At the BP Heart of Scotland service station on the M8, there were no pumps closed and no queues. “We've been pretty quiet for a Monday," sai the shop assistant said.

However, at the Esso Dunglass service station on the A82 outside Glasgow, all the petrol pumps were empty. “We're out of unleaded and I predict we'll be out of diesel by the end of today,” the assistant said. “At the start of last week it was pretty horrendous but since then it's been fine. There's been no panic.”

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