The strikes against the pension reform have more and more consequences for motorists. The western departments are particularly affected by fuel shortages. The most affected department becomes Loire-Atlantique with 53.37% of stations in shortage of at least one fuel, according to public data analyzed this Thursday, March 23 by AFP. In Loire-Atlantique, the Donges refinery has ceased its fuel shipments for many days.
The departments in the west of France as well as in the south of the country are the most affected by fuel shortages.
© / Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PÉCULIER / AFP
Other western departments are also very affected: Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, Mayenne, Maine-et-Loire are all above 40% of stations in shortage. The south of France also remains very affected: Bouches-du-Rhône and Aude are above 40% and many other departments at more than 30%.
Nationwide, the shortage of petrol and diesel at service stations is increasing. According to AFP, 15% of French stations lack one or the other this Thursday, and 7.65% of stations are dry. France has 200 oil depots and oil companies have anticipated to avoid the giant shortage of October 2022 caused by a dispute over wages at TotalEnergies and Esso.
“The government is monitoring the situation hour by hour”
At the TotalEnergies refinery in Normandy, in Gonfreville-L’Orcher, the prefecture did not send police to the employees to deliver the requisition letters but it dispatched a bailiff to the site on Wednesday evening, according to Alexis Antonioli, secretary general CGT of the refinery.
This Thursday afternoon, the refinery strikers renewed “the refusal to take over”, and therefore decided not to take over from their colleagues in post for more than 24 hours, thus avoiding being given the letters of requisition. which would force them to return to work, Alexis Antonioli told AFP. Concerning the teams in post, the prefect cannot requisition them, because they can no longer carry out expeditions beyond 12 working hours, for security reasons.
The TotalEnergies refinery in Normandy is on the same pipelines as the CIM (Compagnie industrielle maritime) in Le Havre and the neighboring Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon, which supply the Paris airports. Fuel shipments from the Esso refinery are also blocked, according to the CGT.
The TotalEnergies company has only one out of four refineries still in operation, in Feyzin near Lyon, from where the strikers continue to prevent any shipments. Two others (Donges, in Loire-Atlantique, and the La Mède biorefinery, in Bouches-du-Rhône) were stopped for reasons other than the strike. The only French refinery of the Petroineos company in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône) also stopped because of the strike.
“The government is monitoring the situation hour by hour and department by department with professionals and prefects. We are intervening in a targeted manner to unblock deposits that are obstructed by demonstrators. As soon as requisitions cannot be avoided, we will take our responsibilities “, declared the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.