UK military begins deliveries to ease fuel supply crisis

The British military started delivering fuel to petrol stations, after a tanker driver shortage sparked two weeks of panic buying by motorists. Troops in fatigues drove tankers from Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead 20 miles (32 kilometres) north of London after the military was put on standby last week.

Some 200 military personnel, half of them drivers, are taking part in Operation Escalin to alleviate fuel shortages in London and southeast England worst affected by the run on the pumps.

The military deployment has been requested for 31 days but will be subject to "discussions with industry", Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters. "What we've seen again over the weekend is a continual improving picture with fuel stocks increasing and more fuel being delivered," he added, cautioning that it was hard to say when the situation would return to normal.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents 65 percent of Britain's 8,380 independent forecourts, welcomed the military's intervention. But it warned that soldiers were still likely to have only a limited effect. At Thurrock in Essex, southeast England, members of the 3rd Logistic Support Regiment have been training with the haulage industry. Uniformed soldiers stood with crossed arms as a civilian instructor in a high-visibility jacket and hard hat showed them how to refill giant tankers.

In Hamble, near the port city of Southampton on England's south coast, tankers were filled with petrol from a BP oil refinery and rolled out to deliver to forecourts.

One in five filling stations in London and southeast England remained out of fuel, PRA chairman Brian Madderson said.