ON MY commute into the Oxford Mail offices on Monday, my petrol light flashed on.
I had 45 miles left on the dashboard and I was struggling to find somewhere to get petrol.
Petrol stations across Oxfordshire have been running out of fuel after protests from groups 'Just Stop Oil' and 'Extinction Rebellion' have been blocking access to oil terminals this week, demanding that the Government stops new oil and gas projects.
More than 100 people have been arrested in Thurrock following the protests which cost the Essex Police more than £1 million, it has been revealed.
With only 45 miles left in my car, at a push, I left my home in Wallingford to drive to our offices in Osney Mead.
At 8am, I stopped at the BP garage off Oxford Road in Benson. Just one pump, out of eight, was open at 8am. It had petrol and diesel so the queues were very long.
The Sainsbury's garage, off Oxford Road in Kidlington, was my next pit stop. It appeared to have all the pumps opened and had placed traffic cones around the entrance of the station to control traffic, similar to when petrol shortages left people panic buying in October last year.
However, after waiting in the queue for about 10 minutes with no movement, I had to abandon it in order to get to work on time.
I returned to the same station at about 1.30pm to find the queue had eased but the diesel had completed run out of all 15 pumps.
Thankfully, I only needed petrol so was able to fill my tank but the queue was still quite long.
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