Are we heading towards a new episode of massive fuel shortages at service stations? The CGT-Chimie announced this morning that fuel shipments were blocked at the exit of “all refineries” in France in order to protest against the government’s plan to reform pensions. The national representative of the trade union organization Eric Sellini specified that the refineries of TotalEnergies, Esso-ExxonMobil and Petroineos were affected by this social movement.
The strikes focused mainly on shipping
Esso-ExxonMobil indicates that nine employees went on strike yesterday at 9:00 p.m. for 48 hours at the Fos-sur-Mer refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) while 14 of them did so this morning for a duration of 24 hours at the Norman de Gravenchon site. “There is no impact on production, only shipments of products are stopped,” says the company.
On the TotalEnergies side, 190 of the 296 operators were on strike this morning, that is, almost two thirds. The oil company confirms that it is indeed the refinery shipments that are blocked, but like last fall, the strike is already spreading to other activities at the sites.
Thus, the secretary of FO, Hakim Bellouz, indicated this morning that 75% of the employees were on strike in production this Tuesday morning at the Feyzin refinery, in the Rhône, while that of Donges (Loire- Atlantique) has already been stopped for ten days due to an “electrical failure”. problem” according to management.
The fuel tanks are sufficiently full
Despite these closures, all the players in the sector are calm. “We have seven refineries closed, but only the part of shipments to the 200 tanks in France is affected,” recalls Francis Pousse, president of “fuel distributors” in the Mobilians union. These depots had made their arrangements for a few days and theoretically they are full, we are used to being agile with fuel depots because for years we have had a movement that impacts distribution at least once a year”.
In Sud Radio, the union representative indicated this morning that fuel reserves vary from 3 to 15 days depending on the type of point of sale.
This observation is corroborated by Totalenergies, which has 50 of the 200 French deposits and has stakes in 27 of them, 7 of which are operated by companies of the company.
“In addition, stocks in warehouses and service stations are at a high level. Our teams are mobilized to meet a demand that could be more sustained than usual and have additional logistical means if necessary”, he continues, from Totalenergies.
The danger of runs at gas stations
Because this is where the turning point is finally found towards a situation similar to what French motorists experienced last October according to Francis Pousse.
“There will be no significant consequences at the gas stations… unless there are many precautionary refuelings as we are beginning to see everywhere,” underlines the president of “fuel distributors” to the Mobilians union.
Frédéric Plan estimated this morning in FranceInfo that the current situation is not comparable to that of autumn. “It was a very hard conflict with production stoppages in most of the refineries located in France, explained the general delegate of the French Federation of Fuels and Fuels, which represents about a thousand service stations. to the accordion on logistics, accentuated by the fear of motorists who overfilled their tanks.
Levers available in case of greater movement
In the columns of Le Parisien, the spokesman for the FF3C conditioned the impact on the bomb of the social movement on its magnitude and duration. “If it’s two or three days, we have enough to last,” he tempered. “But if the refiners get in on the dance, like they did last fall, then that’s going to make the deal more difficult.”
For Olivier Gantois, president of the French Union of Petroleum Industries (Ufip), you can always “play imports” if the refineries are blocked “but if the movement is prolonged and the entire chain is affected, then it gets more complicated.” . .”
For now, the refineries are continuing their fuel production and will only stop once the on-site reserves are full, which would require several days or even weeks of lockdowns. In addition, although the time for this resource has not yet arrived, the sector can count on the famous strategic stocks that correspond to more than three months of national consumption.
Source: BFM TV
