MOTORISTS are facing a week of chaos as hauliers and farmers started action last night aimed at running the region's petrol stations dry.

As queues formed at filling stations, amid reports of panic buying, hauliers and farmers blockaded the Shell oil refinery, in Jarrow, South Tyneside, promising to stay there all night.

The protestors - who earlier in the day brought the A1 to a standstill for the second time in three days - also plan to stop supplies leaving the Shell and Fina refineries in Sunderland and Middlesbrough by the end of the week.

The effects of similar blockades in the North-West have already been widely felt, with scores of petrol stations, some as far east as Richmond, in North Yorkshire, running dry.

Fresh blockades started in Humberside and the West Midlands, adding to growing protest action in other parts of the country.

Speaking from the Jarrow oil refinery, North-East protest organiser Craig Eley, 29, who is acting independently of any organisation, said: "We want every oil refinery in the entire region blocked.

"We don't like to cause disruption, but we want to make the Government sit up and take notice. We've had a great response from the public. We want the country to come to a halt so the Government have to do something."

Among those who joined yesterday's protests, which included 100 slow-moving vehicles bringing traffic to a standstill on the A1 in Northumberland for two hours, was farmer Charlie Armstrong, 27.

He said: "I must have spent £5,000 more on this harvest than I did last year. The costs are astronomical.

"Tony Blair and his Government are driving hard-working men who have spent years building up their businesses to the wall."

Last night, Roy Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers' Association, said: "It is not critical by any means, but it is getting worse. If these actions continue into the early part of next week there will be severe difficulties."

An announcement by the world's oil-producing nations that they would raise official oil output by 800,000 barrels a day brought little relief to motorists. Industry experts said it would have little impact, although it was a step in the right direction