Day 9 of the UK petrol shortage, Saturday 2 October. Joey was lucky. This morning the petrol station next to his home in Brockwell Park in South London was dry. But a little later, he saw the start of the activity: a refueling had just been carried out. “I rushed to refuel, just before the line got too long. “ Since then, the rumor has spread of a full gas station and the line of cars stretches for dozens of meters. Joey’s wife, a high school teacher, needs her car to get to the university where she works, 45 minutes away, and it was urgent to fill the tank.

A mile down the road at Streatham Hill, another gas station was not so lucky. “Without fuel”, indicates the sign, in large capital letters. A priori, supplies are not expected today, according to the manager. “But go to the top of the street, at the other station, there is gasoline”, assures a client, like a trust.

So has life in the UK since September 23, when the gasoline shortage began. Everyone goes through the correct directions where the fuel has just been delivered, and filling stations experience accordion effects: huge lines form immediately after each refueling, emptying the tanks quickly, causing a new shortage.

A quarter of gas stations dry

The UK is not so immobilized as it is simply embarrassed. By searching well, we ended up finding gasoline. London and the south-east of England are more affected than the rest of the country; the situation got even worse there on Saturday, according to the Gasoline Retailers Association, which accounts for two-thirds of stations nationwide. In central and northern England, Scotland and Wales, the problems are easing. On Friday, a quarter of the stations were completely dry and another quarter did not have all grades of fuel. On Monday, two hundred soldiers, including a hundred truck drivers, will intervene to try to improve things.

The UK petrol shortage is the result of a “Perfect storm”, to use the expression in English. As everywhere else, the pandemic has disrupted logistics chains: difficult-to-obtain electronic chips, shortage of raw materials, delayed delivery of containers, etc.

Added to this is Brexit. During the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Europeans returned to their home countries to go through containment, and many did not return. And since 1^{it is} In January, it is no longer possible to work without a visa, a document that is only granted from an annual salary of 25,600 pounds sterling (29,900 euros).

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