Petrol stations across the south of England are facing huge fuel shortages ahead of the Easter weekend, as roads are expected to be the busiest they've been in eight years.
Some fuel stations have been struggling to get any petrol at all, which is partly due to the war in Ukraine and also due to climate activists protesting at refineries.
As Russia is one of the largest exporters of oil in the world, sanctions on the country after it invaded Ukraine have caused petrol prices to shoot up.
The petrol shortage is also partly down to the Just Stop Oil climate activists who are protesting at fuel terminals across the south of the country.
The protesters have been demonstrating against the rise in fuel prices, and calling for an end to the fossil fuel economy.
Berkshire in particular is suffering from petrol shortages with motorists "struggling" to find petrol or diesel in the last week or so, reports Berkshire Live.
The publication called up local petrol stations to see if they had in fact run out of fuel.
Out of the 11 that answered, five have either completely run out of fuel or are running very low. While some were hopeful that they would be getting a delivery soon, a few were not entirely certain when this would be.
Petrol stations in Berkshire that are running low on fuel or have no fuel
- Shell, Basingstoke Road, Reading
- BP, Three Mile Cross, Reading
- BP, A4, Reading
- BP, Bracknell Road, Crowthorne
- BP, Wokingham Road, Earley
The BP in Basingstoke Road said it has diesel but not petrol. Meanwhile, the BP at Three Mile Cross said that it has run out of everything but is hoping to have a delivery today.
The BP on the A4 in Reading said that it is running very low on petrol and diesel. The BP in Wokingham Road, Bracknell, said that it has unleaded but no diesel and will hopefully have a fuel delivery at 1pm.
The Bracknell Road BP says that it's run out of diesel and is low on petrol but should be having a delivery by 6pm.
Berkshire petrol stations that have fuel
- Basildon Filling Station, Reading Road
- ESSO MFG Forlease Road, Maidenhead
- BP, Windsor Road, Windsor
- Cresswells Garage, Wokingham
- Shell, Hungerford
- BP, London Road, Newbury
BerkshireLive readers have expressed difficulty in trying to find fuel recently. Under a post about queues at petrol stations, Caroline Jackson said: "I didn't even know about this on Saturday, but some garages were already empty then."
Sarah Maskell said that she too has "struggled" to find fuel. She said: "Struggled to find unleaded and diesel yesterday. My car was empty after visiting several garages I could not take the risk of running out of petrol whilst looking.
"So had to phone around garages and send my husband out with a fuel can to get me enough petrol to go and fill up. Nightmare."
Meanwhile, Dominik Lipinski said: "There really is no fuel at the garages. I deliver fuel myself and from Saturday we only deliver to garages that have already run out."
Companies and businesses have noticed the impact of these fuel shortages. A RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said that these shortages have been an "inconvenience" for consumers.
He said: “Protests at fuel terminals over the last two weekends have led to some forecourts in the South East running out of fuel due to planned deliveries being disrupted.
"While this is obviously an inconvenience at one of the busiest times of the year drivers should easily be able to find fuel. We expect the situation to resolve itself soon, barring any further protests.”
How to find petrol near you
Drivers going in search of petrol and diesel should check Google Maps before they set off.
Maps has a handy feature in which you can search for the nearest petrol station to you and see how busy it is by a bar chart presented to you.
The busier it is, the higher the bar and this may indicate that the station is being well-used because it has fuel.
Compare it to other petrol stations near you and if some are empty but on a busy road, they may be the ones to avoid.
This doesn't take into account things like the local population, how busy the roads are at a given time of day and how popular the stations are. You could go to a busier station and still find there is no fuel available.
Due to the nature of pump shortages, it is not always clear which pumps will be affected by a stopped oil tanker not reaching its destination.
