The National Health Service was placed on red alert last night as 90 per cent of Britain's petrol stations remained closed. And troops were put on standby as the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, demanded the recall of parliament to discuss the deepening fuel crisis.
As the Prime Minister's hopes of having the situation "on the way back to normal" within 24 hours were dashed and army tankers were moving across Britain in case they were needed, Mr Hague insisted: "If anything, things have got worse. We haven't seen anything like this since the last time we had a Labour government."
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that around 80 tanker lorries from the army, navy and RAF were being deployed at strategic points. An MOD spokeswoman said: `They are being deployed, not employed. They have not yet been authorised to supply fuel but they are being made available for it if the need arises."
While protesters at refineries across England, Scotland and Wales allowed tankers through to filling stations designated for distribution to essential services only, BP, Esso and Shell confirmed that deliveries yesterday were running at just 10 per cent of normal. Twenty two BP tankers hit the road, compared with a normal 192, with 55 of a normal 170 for Esso, and 49 as opposed to 200 for Shell.
Reports piled in of imminent school closures in south Wales, Birmingham and Oxford, the suspension of bus services by Edinburgh's biggest bus operator, and low stocks of fresh vegetables, bread and milk.
The director of the Petrol Retailers Association, Mr Ray Halloway, said: "It's like turning the clock back to the Seventies. We shall be going from a standing start and there are thousands of filling stations all over the country which have no fuel at all."
At a Downing Street press conference last night Mr Blair insisted that "the blockades are now lifted", and that the police had guaranteed the safety of worried drivers "against what in some areas have been very real threats of intimidation."
The National Association of Funeral Directors warned of a possible build-up of bodies in hospitals and local health authorities in England were told to be ready to put their emergency procedures into effect for the first time in 11 years.
Scotland's First Minister, Mr Donald Dewar, vented government impatience on the oil companies, criticising the "disappointing and inadequate" rate of progress.
Angry protesters at Grangemouth rejected calls by the Road Haulage Association to end their protest.
Mr Dewar told the Scottish Parliament: "This disappointing and inadequate progress is very frustrating. This is a situation where there is no barrier to moving in and out of the plant or indeed anything approaching an official picket line.
"The Chief Constable of Central Scotland Police has assured me he has adequate resources, including the availability of support from other forces under mutual aid arrangements to meet the oil company's needs."
After further talks at Downing Street between the oil companies, police chiefs and Mr Blair, Sir John Evans of the Association of Chief Police Officers said that, while the protests had generally been goodnatured, there had been two incidents of bricks through windscreens.
However, across the country there were also continuing reports of drivers refusing to cross the unofficial picket lines, in solidarity with the protesters.
While lorry drivers converged on the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, police prevented scores of lorries from blocking the heart of Westminster. Instead the protesters went to wealthy Park Lane, and blocked all four southbound lanes.
The RAC reported chaos and tailbacks in Devon, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Tyne and Weir and Greater Manchester.
Fishermen on the Clyde organised a flotilla to demonstrate in support of the fuel protests in defiance of union leaders, while roads in Aberdeen and Inverness were blocked. Last night's King's Cross to Aberdeen train was cancelled.
In Wales, where at least 19 secondary schools will close, no fuel had left the Texaco depot in Cardiff for general use, although several tankers travelled to designated points for distribution to essential users.
In Glasgow the TUC general secretary, Mr John Monks, claimed that companies which would normally go straight to court if unions took industrial action had clearly "colluded" in lawless protest and civil disruption. He told the TUC: "Let me remind you of another occasion when trucks and lorries were used by the self-employed and the far right to attack democracy. That was in 1973 in Chile, and it started a chain of events which brought down the Allende government."