Motorists in Britain were warned last night that petrol could be rationed after mass panic buying broke out following rumours that blockades had resumed.
Huge queues, some up to a mile long, built up at petrol stations across Britain, causing traffic chaos and leading to calls for calm from the government, police and petrol-retailers.
The rumours of renewed blockades, which appeared to start following comments on Red Dragon FM, a local radio station in south Wales, spread panic across the country.
Police had to close some petrol stations, including several in Birmingham and Cardiff, because queues were blocking roads.
An RAC spokesman said many motorists had heard the Avon mouth refinery was being blockaded. He added that there were half-mile queues at every garage between Bristol and Bath.
Congestion was also reported at stations from south-east London to Glasgow. A Hampshire Police spokesman said the situation was as bad as at the height of last week's protests.
Farmers, truckers and fishermen started fuel protests from the North Sea to the Mediterranean yesterday with crude oil prices close to 10-year highs.
The European demonstrations spread to the Middle East, where Israeli truckers mounted a "goslow" along the main north-south road linking the ports of Haifa and Ashdod. Crude prices hit 10-year peaks on Monday.
Farmers demonstrated across Spain and a convoy of tractors arrived in Madrid. Spain's national fuel distribution company, CLH, said access to five of its centres had been blocked by demonstrators.
In Seville about 4,000 tractors blocked all the main access routes to the city. In Madrid, 50 tractors crept through the city centre for a rally at the Economy Ministry. In Barcelona, a blockade by fishing boats of the country's biggest port ended early yesterday.
In Germany, truckers and farmers staged a series of protests, holding up traffic, but there was little sign the government was about to yield to demands for cuts in fuel duty.
In Israel, Mr Gabi BenHaroush, chief of the Hauliers' and Drivers' Council, said truckers could widen their protest today. The Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, threatened to intervene if the protests disrupted daily life, saying the price of diesel fuel used by the truckers was low in Israel compared with Europe at 60 cents a litre.
In Sweden, dozens of truck-drivers blocked goods terminals in the North Sea port of Gothenburg. A blockade of Sweden's oil terminals was lifted on Monday night amid fears that petrol stations would run dry.
Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, reported the greatest disruption yesterday, but blockades of terminals in the ports of Malmo and Stockholm continued.