Panic gripped Oxfordshire's motorists as they rushed to the petrol pumps ahead of the 48-hour strike by Scottish oil workers this weekend.

At least one petrol station, Tesco in Marcham Road, Abingdon, ran out of petrol and diesel on Saturday as motorists rushed to fill up.

Other forecourts in the Oxford area confirmed customer numbers were up between 10 per cent and double on Friday and Saturday.

The scare was sparked by a 48-hour strike at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and a decision by BP to shut down a pipeline powered by the plant which delivers 30 per cent of the UK's daily oil output.

However, it was not expected to hit supplies in the south of England and petrol retailers in Oxfordshire appealed to the county's motorists not to panic.

Klis John, a supervisor at Esso in Oxpens, Oxford, said last night: "We were 10 to 20 per cent up on customers on Saturday. We are short of fuel but we are getting a delivery.

"People are filling up a lot and panicking and that is the reason we are short."

Sohail Dogar, supervisor at Shell in London Road, Headington, said: "There has been an increase in sales and we have probably had about a quarter more customers than usual."

Gopi Siva, who works at BP in Cherwell Drive in Marston, said: "They were panicking on Friday and Saturday but it's back to normal today. We had about double the number of customers that we normally would have. Cars were queuing on the forecourt and they were filling their tanks right up."

Petrol and diesel supplies ran out at the Tesco petrol station in Marcham Road, Abingdon, on Saturday.

A staff member said: "We did run out on Saturday. We ran out of petrol at 3pm and diesel at 7pm, but it happens from time to time with things like this."

Petrol station managers were confident they could restock garages in the next two days and did not anticipate a shortage.

Staff at the Grangemouth refinery began their 48-hour strike yesterday morning in a row over pensions and held a mass rally outside the refinery attended by about 200 people.