{"id":483288,"date":"2026-03-19T03:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483288\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T03:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:09:16","slug":"uk-plans-for-fuel-emergency-revealed-from-50mph-speed-limits-to-rationing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483288\/","title":{"rendered":"UK plans for fuel emergency revealed – from 50mph speed limits to rationing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Existing plans allow for extreme measures to be taken if petrol stocks run low, but government insists there is no prospect of shortages for now\"The<\/p>\n

The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has led to fears of some rationing of stocks (Image: Maureen McLean\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Plans allow for lower speed limits and petrol rationing to be imposed to cope with any fuel <\/a>shortage. The measures would also potentially see fuel prioritised for the emergency services as measures that could help supplies running out.<\/p>\n

The plans have been in place since 2022 but have been put into sharp focus by the Middle East<\/a> conflict.<\/p>\n

It came as a top expert warned this week that the government could be forced to ration energy if the Iran war drags on. A virtual blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has crippled exports of oil from the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Nick Butler, ex-head of strategy at BP and a former advisor to Labour PM Gordon Brown<\/a>, warned: \u201cThere will be a real, physical shortage of supply in a few weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long that goes on we don\u2019t know, but I think the government here must now be preparing for a significant shortfall of supply over the next two months.<\/p>\n

\"Fuel<\/p>\n

Fuel prices have soared on the back of the Middle East conflict (Image: Maureen McLean\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Donald Trump escalates Iran war with terrifying bunker-buster ‘Penetrator’ bomb missions<\/a>READ MORE: Ukraine will ‘run out of missiles’ because of Trump’s war on Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it does mean a form of rationing. I think we learnt from the tanker drivers dispute in 2000 that oil and gas supplies are absolutely crucial to the running of the economy and you can\u2019t bring on new supplies quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Emergency Plan for Fuel, which is available on the gov.uk website, reportedly includes limiting speeds to 50mph on all roads.<\/p>\n

The government insisted, while the plans existed, they were there only for emergencies. It said petrol stations in the UK were well-stocked.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson also pointed out that, last year, around 90% of the crude oil refined in the UK was imported, and only around 1% of that imported crude came from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\"Drivers<\/p>\n

Drivers have been urged to fill up as normal (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Most is sourced from countries such as the United States, and Norway, supplemented by smaller volumes from other producers. The AA and others have been keen to stress that drivers should fill up as normal.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the RAC has revealed how pump prices continue to rise. Unleaded has risen to an average of 142.62p a litre, while diesel up to 162.66p.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Existing plans allow for extreme measures to be taken if petrol stocks run low, but government insists there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[82777,59,57,58,632,50,3491,171700,5348,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-483288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-bp","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-petrol-prices","tag-the-aa","tag-the-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}