As pump-owners stopped procuring petrol and diesel from oil companies from Thursday midnight, several outlets in and around the city witnessed panic buying on Friday.

If the buying spree remains unchecked, most filling stations will run dry by Saturday, triggering a major crisis.

The West Bengal Petroleum Dealers? Association is not procuring petrol to protest the oil firms? practice of ?short-changing? pump-owners.

Food and supplies officials met representatives of the oil firms and pump operators to solve the impasse, but failed.

Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty said he would intervene in the matter on Saturday.

?If the pump-owners stick to their demand, the entire transport system will collapse. There will also be a crisis in the supply of essential commodities,? Chakraborty said. ?Let them resolve the issue across the table? We will not allow common people to be inconvenienced.?

Long queues of vehicles, especially cars, were seen in front of several pumps since Friday morning. ?Car-owners are buying more than they require. Those who need five-seven litres of fuel daily, took 20-25 litres,? said Apurba Roychowdhury, manager of Salt Lake Service Station.

Vijay Gupta, a Salt Lake resident, said: ?Normally, I buy 10 litres of diesel every day on my way to office, but today I bought 40 litres.??

Bus, minibus and taxi operators are facing an acute problem. ?We cannot buy additional fuel. What will we do after the stock gets exhausted?? asked Bengal Bus Syndicate president Swarnakamal Saha.

IOC general manager, Gautam Dutta said: ?The process of measuring fuel is fixed by the petroleum ministry. How can we change it???