On the eve of the weekend of November 11, it can still be difficult to refuel in certain regions of France. This Thursday morning, almost one in four stations was still experiencing difficulties nationwide with at least one missing fuel, as can be seen on our map taken from data from the site “penurie.mon-essence.f” (Essence&Co app) .
A map that does not give an exact view of the situation, since it is based on information transmitted by the users of the application, but which nevertheless allows us to see that tensions persist, especially near the main cities.
“The last strike was lifted the day before yesterday at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin, so all the refineries in France are already operational, but not all at their normal production rate,” summarizes Olivier Gantois, president of the French Union of Petroleum Industries. (UFIP).
Since the first lifting of the blockades in mid-October, we have already noticed this gap between the end of the strikes and the very slow resumption of fuel distribution: a refinery takes 5 to 10 days to resume production.
Diesel available, less gasoline
“Since the weekend of November 1, diesel availability problems have almost disappeared and it represents three-quarters of fuel consumption in France,” underlines Olivier Gantois.
On gasoline, which is refined in France, while diesel is imported, there may be tensions, “but most stations have at least one of the three qualities of unleaded [95, 95-E10 ou 98, NDLR] all of them accepted by the majority of gasoline models”, recalls the president of the Ufip.
Fears before the downward discount on November 16
Although many French people are going to travel for this weekend of November 11 and the reduction of the discount at the pump is looming in the middle of next week, the situation could become tense again in the stations.
On Wednesday, November 16, the Government’s reduction will drop from 30 to 10 cents per liter, and that of TotalEnergies from 20 to 10 cents per liter. In concrete terms, prices will mechanically rise 30 cents per liter for all fuels during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday of next week at Total stations, and 20 cents at other stations.
There is no fear, however, for Olivier Gantois, with large rollers “which in any case fill up every two or three days” and other motorists “who go to the station much less regularly”. Clearly the latter, which still have a well-filled tank, particularly with the “precautionary fill-ups” carried out in October and partly the source of the difficulties at the stations, simply will not have driven long enough to motivate a return to the station. .
In addition, the decrees that prohibit the filling of drums are still in force, says the president of the Ufip, which should dissuade storage in anticipation of this reduction in bonuses.
Source: BFM TV
