One in four of Britain's 13,000 petrol stations were restocked with fuel to supply emergency and essential services and a handful of lucky customers last night, as oil companies predicted it would be another two weeks before supplies would be back to normal.
As long queues of traffic outside petrol stations were still being reported around the country, one of which delayed the delivery of fuel from a refinery in Southampton, the Institute of Directors warned that the dispute would cost businesses £1 billion by the time fuel deliveries returned to normal. With a survey in the Daily Telegraph yesterday showing voter disapproval for the British government had risen from 49 per cent to 56 per cent in the past five weeks (including the first few days of the fuel protest), the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, admitted the government had not expected the scale and speed of developments.
But he insisted: "Neither did anybody else. This has turned out to be a new phenomenon in protest. These kinds of things happen to government from time to time."
Mr Straw, who is leading a special task force of police officers, ministers and oil companies to consider the lessons that can be learnt from the protest, said the government would listen to people's concerns over the price of petrol.
But he felt the protesters had crossed the boundary of democratic protest. "As a consequence of these protests essential services, the basic fabric of our society and national life, was brought to the brink. I was surprised," he said.
The task force would examine arrangements with oil companies for co-ordination and crisis management and consider "public order, public safety and above all ensuring a free flow of petrol into our economy and our society".
The Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Richard Caborn, said the government was facing a new set of circumstances and must address them. "Now we can evaluate it and solutions can be found to the problems of keeping fuel flowing to the forecourts and making sure that it is done with public order and public safety," he said.
But Mr John Wadham, director of the human rights pressure group, Liberty, questioned whether the government's task force could achieve anything. "The task force is going to a talking shop. In reality the government has to be seen to be doing something," he said.
With an estimated 25 per cent of Britain's petrol stations expected to have been supplied with fuel by the end of the day, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) increased the number of stations designated to supply emergency services and essential occupations from 2,500 to 3,000 to help ease queues. The 298 designated stations for essential users only would remain in place "for the foreseeable future", the DTI said.
Despite the predictions about supplies returning to normal, the short-term situation for many schools, businesses and drivers remained difficult. One hundred and sixty schools in England and 24 schools in Wales were closed, and British Airways and Virgin Atlantic announced a 3 per cent increase in fares because of the fuel crisis.
Public transport services in rural areas were still patchy. And in Scotland, where the dispute did not cause the level of difficulty experienced in the rest of Britain, petrol station supplies were slowly returning to normal.
However, several stations in the north of England were forced to ration fuel supplied to its customers, and in Yorkshire garages that were refuelled on Thursday had run out yesterday. And taxi-drivers appealed to the government to include them on the list of essential services because of the difficulties in finding petrol stations that would supply fuel. The appeal was later accepted.
In some areas the problem of finding fuel caused some people to resort to drastic measures. In Nottingham, police said they were prepared to issue fixed penalty notices to drivers trying to jump queues at petrol stations and in Suffolk three people were arrested for allegedly trying to steal petrol by cutting the fuel lines of vehicles in Lowestoft.
Oil companies said they were on target to supply government-designated petrol stations and provided extra resources to speed the process. BP said its drivers were working throughout the day to restock petrol stations and it expected to make 708 deliveries for emergency and essential services.
"In a normal 24-hour period we would make 877 deliveries, so although we are not up to full capacity, it won't be long until we are," a BP spokesman said. "We are working as quickly as we can to make sure they get filled up."
Meanwhile, Esso predicted that by this morning 480 deliveries of fuel would have been made representing 70 per cent of its normal level of supply.
Shell and Total/Fina/Elf said their priority was to deliver fuel for emergency services but said some drivers were being served at petrol stations around the country.