Credible scenario or simple desire to reassure? Asked by our colleagues from France 2 about the fuel shortage, Emmanuel Macron assured this Wednesday that the supply of service stations would return to its normal rate “within the next week”.
However, if the strike was lifted in recent days at the two Esso-ExxonMobil sites in Port-Jérôme and Fos-sur-Mer, it still continued this Saturday at the TotalEnergies depots and refineries in Flanders, Donges, Gonfreville, Feyzin and The Medo. And despite the Government’s decisions to requisition personnel and “release strategic stocks to decongest service stations”, more than 28% of them continued to have supply difficulties at the national level this Friday.
In Matignon it is estimated that the return to normality once the strike is lifted will depend on “the facilities”. “We have one to two weeks for a refinery to work normally again, to unblock the deposits it is fast since there is product that is in these deposits, it is enough to transport it (…) There may be first effects in a few days. And then, for the general logistics to recover, we are talking about an order of magnitude of about a week to get back to normal, “he says. Rue de Varenne side.
A return to normality next week “is impossible”
For the workers’ representatives, Emmanuel Macron’s forecasts regarding the possibility of a return to normality next week seem more than optimistic: “I did not know that the Government was the general director of petrochemical companies. I find out”, joked on BFMTV Vincent Gautheron, member of the confederal executive commission of the CGT.
According to him, it would already be necessary to know when the strike will end to make a credible prediction. However, “even I can’t know. It’s not me who decides… It’s the employees on the ground,” he said. Also, “even if the strike movement were to stop on Monday, I don’t think you can get the facility back up and running overnight. There are some safety procedures while you organize the deliveries. So to say next week all it’s fixed.” , I think it is adding fuel to the fire in terms of the discontent of the population”, added Vincent Gautheron.
The same observation by Francis Pousse, president of the service stations and new energies branch of the Mobilians professional union: “It is impossible that there will be a return to normality (…) next week, simply because a refinery, it’s five to ten days to restart.” And if “certain stocks” of the main deposits are “currently accessible”, it is still necessary to be able to supply the “200 deposits” of the country.
Ce qui est loin d’être gagné: “Certains (dépôts) sont alimentés par des trucks que nous manquent en ce moment. Certains sont alimentés par train mais je thought que mardi (jour d’appel à une grève interprofesionnelle, NDLR), il n’y aura pas beaucoup de trains à rouler. Et après, il faut alimenter les 11,000 stations-service de France”, rappelled Francis Pousse, who is not attending a return to the normal avant “15 to 20 days” probably. And when we say ‘normal’, they are normally supplied stations, above all, logistics that have resumed their course”.
“Two to three weeks” for the return to normality in Esso
At Esso-ExxonMobil, where the strike was lifted this week, the return “to a normal operating situation” at the two refineries whose production was halted will take “two to three weeks,” the group said in a press release on Friday.
Source: BFM TV
