The Grangemouth oil refinery has now been completely shut down ahead of a 48-strike due to start on Sunday as Scottish petrol stations began to run dry after panic buying by motorists.

A spokeswoman for Ineos, the chemicals group that owns the country's biggest oil refinery stationed near Edinburgh, confirmed that the site closed today.

The process to close the plant began a week ago and and is expected to take up to three weeks to become fully operational again if Ineos management and the 1,200 workers due out on strike, reach an agreement over pensions.

Petrol stations in Scotland have already started to run dry despite Government pleas for motorists not to start panic-buying.

Several filling stations in Edinburgh had just two or three pumps open, with queues two or three cars deep, as customers reportedly stockpiled fuel by filling up jerry cans before paying.

At least one, the Canonmills service station, was closed, with the forecourt taped off while a Shell garage on Ferry Road, was only selling LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) with no petrol or diesel. An Esso petrol station on Willowbrae Road and a Shell garage on Glasgow Road were both out of diesel.

Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning that petrol supplies across the UK should not be a problem, but he acknowledged that some motorists could be hit by shortages at certain forecourts.

“I cannot guarantee that every garage forecourt will have petrol at that precise moment," he said.

"I hope the vast majority of people are sensible about this. They might have to be patient. People will have to be sensible and rational."

The 48-hour strike at Grangemouth, which is owned by Ineos, the UK chemicals group, is expected to go-ahead on Sunday as 1,200 workers prepare to walk out in a dispute over pensions.

Tony Woodley, the general secretary at Unite, the union, addressed workers at the refinery today "expressing 100 per cent support for the action they are being forced to take", said a spokesman.

The Forties pipeline system, which pumps crude oil from the North Sea, is set to shut down tonight.

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