The All Saints holidays are approaching, and with this deadline, the specter of a fuel shortage looms. This year, this autumn recess will take place, for the entire territory, from Saturday October 22 to November 7, that is, in just ten days. But the social movement continues in the refineries, causing serious supply problems and shortages at the pump for motorists. In total, 31.3% of service stations are dry or lack one or more fuels, according to figures released this Tuesday by the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
A situation that is not resolved overnight at service stations. According to TotalEnergies Europe Refining Director Jean-Marc Durand, interviewed Tuesday on BFMTV, in the event of lifting the “blocking points” at the refinery level, it would take “a great week” to find a normal rate of delivery fuel service stations.
2-3 weeks to find a pre-crisis offer
“If the refineries start working again tomorrow, five to 10 days should allow a good level of delivery to be found,” according to Francis Pousse, president of the fuel branch of the Mobilians union, which federates 5,800 service stations. In fact, refineries hold stocks of ready-to-eat products that are currently locked up. “It would take 20 to 48 hours to start sending them to the pipelines that supply the 200 depots in the territory,” the station representative told us.
However, these estimates are based on the assumption of a return to work, which is far from obvious at this point. Despite threats of requisition made the day before by Elisabeth Borne, TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil employees renewed their strike action this Wednesday morning. At the same time, the government followed through on its threat and launched a requisition procedure at the ExxonMobil refinery depot in Gravenchon-Port-Jérôme.
But this procedure will not lead to a complete resumption of activity. Indeed, the prefect cannot establish a complete or normal service and must content himself with a minimum service, within the framework of this requisition so as not to infringe the right to strike.
Source: BFM TV
