Urgent safety inspections on fuel tankers leads to shortage of petrol in southeast Queensland Matt Saunderson tried to buy fuel at the 7 Eleven service station at Newmarket - but it was out of fuel. PETROL pumps have started to run dry in southeast Queensland as a result of a mass recall of fuel tankers. Cootes Transport has taken much of its Queensland fleet off the road to conduct "rigorous independent inspections" after major defects were found in a number of tankers following last week's fatal crash in Sydney. Motorists in southeast Queensland have been warned to expect temporary shortages until next week as a result of the distribution problem. Warnings of looming fuel shortage BP has about a third of its trucks off the road, and Shell's fleet is down by around a quarter with capacity not expected to return to normal until the weekend. BP spokesman Jamie Jardine said it was likely some service stations would run out of fuel for a day at a time because of the difficulty in meeting demand. "It's going to be a while until we get all the trucks back, and then it will take a week to catch up," said Mr Jardine. In the meantime stocks will be diminishing and we're not able to replenish all of those. He urged motorists not to "panic buy" but simply to fill up as required. "We accept it's not a good position for customers and we apologise for that, but we're doing everything we can to maintain supplies," Mr Jardine said. Shell spokesman Paul Zennaro said emergency services would be kept informed of where fuel was available, but motorists would have to take their chances. Shell continues to actively monitor stock levels and is prioritising deliveries of fuel to sites where it is most needed,' said Mr Zennaro. Safety remains Shell's number one priority, and the company apologises to customers for any inconvenience caused. The shortage has raised concerns about the potential for profiteering by petrol retailers at a time when prices should be fairly stable. Paul Turner from Queensland's peak motoring body RACQ said a price hike was expected towards the end of the week as the traditional cycle "flipped over." "Nationally the Australian dollar has strengthened and we would hope prices would remain down for most of the week," said Mr Turner. It will be interesting to see if they go early using a perceived supply shortage as an excuse. He said while members were reporting some service stations had run out of a particular type of fuel, there were alternatives available. There is no need to panic. It's a fuel distribution issue and we understand fuel companies are looking at alternative transport," Mr Turner said. Transport Minister Scott Emerson said he would take a very dim view of anyone trying to take advantage of the temporary disruption to fuel. He said his department was currently working with Cootes to ensure its Queensland based fleet was safe. Yesterday's lowest petrol price in southeast Queensland was 136.5 cents a litre at Caltex Woolworths' stations which are not impacted by the fuel tanker recall.