UK Drivers Queue For Gasoline As Climate Activists Block Fuel Depots

Drivers in the UK have been queuing for fuel in recent hours after several days of climate protests culminated on Monday with a blockade of an oil facility near Heathrow in London.

Some gas stations in London and the southeast of England are closed because they have run out of fuel, while drivers are queuing for hours at the stations that still sell gasoline and diesel.

A Tesco forecourt in the town of Saffron Walden, Essex, is closed, the supermarket chain said on Monday, replying to a question from a customer when fuel would be available. "The Petrol filling station can't advise when the next delivery will be at present," Tesco's customer service said.

Many drivers took to Twitter to say that some gas stations are sold out of all kinds of fuel.

The lack of fuel at gas stations is the result of several days of protests by climate activists. On Monday, campaigners from Extinction Rebellion and from Just Stop Oil blocked the entrance to the Esso West oil facility near Heathrow Airport in London. The facility is operated by U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil.

"This is the fourth day in a row in which oil facilities across the UK have been blocked as part of ongoing action by Extinction Rebellion and the Just Stop Oil coalition. Over the weekend Just Stop Oil continued to block oil depots in Grays, Purfleet, Buncefield, Tamworth and Central Birmingham," Extinction Rebellion said on Monday.

"We will continue to block oil facilities until the government agrees to stop all new fossil fuel investments immediately," the group added.

"Right now, governments are choosing to exploit the crisis in Ukraine to hand out oil licences and continue the fossil fuel economy that's destroying us," Andrew Smith from Extinction Rebellion said in a statement.

Despite the UK's net-zero pledge and its ambitious renewable electricity targets, the country will continue to rely on oil and gas from the North Sea. After Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February, the UK doubled down on its commitment to net-zero by 2050, but it also reiterated its support for its domestic oil and gas resources.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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