As emergency talks to stop strike action at Grangemouth oil refinery took place today, panic buying across the city caused some major petrol stations to run out.

The Shell Discovery station in East Marketgait has been bombarded by customers and, before introducing a £15 fuel limit, was selling over three times more than normal.

Despite receiving a delivery last night, they began to run out of supplies this morning and were forced into imposing the rationing.

Amanda Meehan from the filling station said they had “no clue” when they would be receiving another delivery, although they hoped to have a better idea later in the day.

“We have had customers coming in and saying other stations have no fuel left at all,” she told the Tele. “I don’t know of any other stations putting a limit in place, but we are just trying to give all our customers something.

“Before the limit we were going through 2000 litres an hour —normally we would only sell about 14,000 litres in any 24-hour period.”

Sainsbury’s petrol station at Claypotts had to close for a time this morning after yesterday’s buying spree left them without fuel. A spokesperson told the Tele they were expecting a delivery later today and the supply of fuel was not the problem.

A statement from Sainsbury’s head office said, “Regular deliveries are being made to all our petrol stations, including Dundee, and we don’t have any availability issues.”

Other forecourts seemed to be riding the storm, and the independently-owned Forfar Road service station said it was coping well.

It received a full tanker delivery from the refinery this morning. A spokesperson at the service station said there was “no need to panic”. He said they were busier than normal today, but it seemed the majority of panic buyers flocked in yesterday.

Motorists were also reassured by the big petrol suppliers who source their fuel from other parts of the country and are not dependent on the Scottish refinery.

A spokesman from Morrisons said, “Morrisons sources fuel from supply locations in Scotland other than just Grangemouth. We also have good levels of stock in the tanks in our forecourts.

“We do not foresee any issues with the supply of petrol and diesel to our customers.

“However, we would ask that to avoid the risk of shortages and unnecessary queuing caused by panic buying, people are sensible when purchasing their fuel.”

A spokeswoman for Asda explained the company did not get their fuel from Grangemouth, and confirmed, “There has been no problem with shortages at either Kirkton or Milton, and no sign of panic buying by motorists — it has just been business as usual.”