Is panic buying gripping Milton Keynes again as more and more fuel pumps are reported empty each day?

Seven months after the infamous 2021 fuel shortage, diesel is once again becoming hard to find in MK.
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More and more motorists are panicking as their tanks are showing empty but fuel stations have no stocks.

And the stations without diesel have begun to put up signs, warning motorists about the lack of supplies in an attempt to prevent long queues from building up

A local social media group called MK Fuel Board, set up to inform people where supplies are available in the borough, already has almost 3,000 members.

Fuel is becoming harder and harder to find in Milton KeynesFuel is becoming harder and harder to find in Milton Keynes
Fuel is becoming harder and harder to find in Milton Keynes

The group’s admin states: “This is a group to share information on where to get fuel, NOT to have a moan about panic buying.”

He adds: “Not everyone is panic buying, myself included, some people genuinely need fuel for work etc and find this site useful to save them time in getting what they need and not having to waste time and fuel trying to find it."

Drivers all over England have been reporting some shortages of the past week or so. However the areas most affected by diesel shortages are in the souththest of England.

But is there a real problem or are people causing the shortage by panic buying?

Fuel shortages are reported daily in MK this weekFuel shortages are reported daily in MK this week
Fuel shortages are reported daily in MK this week

Certainly rising prices, changes to the rules on ‘red diesel’, and the Russia, Ukraine conflict are all having an impact on supplies.

​Drivers were hit by the largest monthly spike in pump prices on record in March, despite a cut in fuel duty, according to new analysis.

The RAC said the average cost of a litre of diesel at UK forecourts rose by 22.1p to end March at 177.3p, the largest monthly spike in pump prices on record.

The increases came despite Chancellor Rishi Sunak implementing a 5p per litre cut in fuel duty on 23 March.

The RAC said the rise in pump prices was driven by surging wholesale costs caused by the war in Ukraine and drivers would have been hit by even higher prices without the cut in fuel duty.

But the prices are only part of the problem. Activists are to blame for another part.

Protestors from Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion groups obstructed 10 fuel sites in the Midlands and southern England in the early hours of Friday 1 April, to stand against “expanding UK oil and gas production”.

The activists were glued on to roads, suspended on bamboo tripods, and locked on to oil drums and each other from around 4am.

ExxonMobil UK, one of the country’s largest privately owned underground oil pipeline distribution networks, said it shut down three of its terminals as a result.

This has had a knock on effect on the availability of diesel at the pumps, as fuel deliveries were delayed.

Meanwhile, the situation is exacerbating by the troubles in Ukraine.

As a result of sanctions imposed against Russia for its unlawful invasion of its neighbour, Russian-owned or flagged vessels are banned from UK ports.

The UK government has pledged to stop importing Russian diesel by the end of the year and until then, the deliveries continue, they say.

Russia supplies nearly a fifth of the UK’s diesel fuel, but with Russian vessels unable to dock, that’s made fuel deliveries a logistical nightmare.

Last month, for example, dockers in Cheshire refused to unload Russian oil transported by a German-flagged vessel.

All of the above have had an impact on the accessibility of diesel – but global demand for the fuel was spiking even before the crisis in Ukraine.

Post-lockdown soars in demand meant that many suppliers were unable to keep up with sudden increases in the use of diesel.

“Stocks of lots of fuels are relatively low, but diesel in particular, in Europe, in the US and in Asia as well,” Neil Crosby, senior oil analyst at OilX, told the BBC.

“The demand for diesel has been very strong up until the crisis, and that also contributed to that. There’s just an imbalance between supply and demand.”

A way to check if a petrol station has a good supply is to check Google Maps. Look for petrol stations near you and then click on them. This will show you how busy they are.

If a station has a large bar for the current time that means it is busy or busier than average and there is likely fuel in stock. If there is a small bar that means it is less busy than usual and could be out of fuel.

Another handy tool for checking prices is confused.com’s online checker. Select the type of fuel you need and enter your postcode and it will show the cheapest stations in your area.

Finally, another factor playing into the rising demand for forecourt diesel is the newly introduced ban on ‘red diesel’.

Red diesel is the term used for diesel that is intended for use other than as fuel in road vehicles - agricultural or construction vehicles such as tractors, excavators, cranes and some other non-road applications such as boats.

It is essentially the same as ​“white” diesel used in cars, but is marked with a red dye to prevent its misuse.

From ​April 1, red diesel became illegal for most vehicles, in a bid to promote the use of more sustainable fuels. That means that those who previously relied on red diesel are now turning to the regular fuel to continue operating vehicles and machinery – meaning more demand at the pumps.