All refineries in France are blocked due to a strike against the pension reform. Will this have a significant impact on the supply of fuel to gas stations?
Refineries are still shut down this Wednesday, March 8, 2023 in France. All the sites present in France are blocked by strikers, opposed to pension reform. Not a single drop of ready-to-use gasoline and diesel leaves these strategic sites to supply the country’s 200 fuel depots. But there is no need to rush to service stations to anticipate a possible shortage: stocks are still high enough and the French will not run out of fuel in the days to come.
Barricades preventing the movement of trucks have been erected in front of the refineries of La Mède, Donges, Normandy, Feyzin, Flandres (TotalEnergies), Fos-sur-Mer, Gravenchon (Esso-ExxonMobil), as well as that of Lavéra (Petroineos). While the question of the renewal of the strike is posed “every eight hours to the employees who arrive”, as indicated by Eric Sellini, of the CGT-Chemistry, the movement is still in progress on all the industrial sites. .
Could the refinery strike lead to a fuel shortage?
Faced with these challenges, Total claimed to always have the necessary fuel at its service stations. Above all, if the refineries are blocked, this is not the case for all the oil depots in the country. Some are, as in Dunkirk, Ambès (near Bordeaux), but the movement has not yet extended to all of these intermediate platforms. Comings and goings to supply service stations are therefore possible, while stocks last. “As of today, there is plenty of fuel on the national territory” and “the service stations continue to be delivered normally”, indicates to AFP Francis Pousse, president of the professional union Mobilians representing 5,800 stations out of the approximately 10,000 in France.
The situation could therefore only worsen when the stocks of the oil depots run dry. At that time, they can only be resupplied once the refineries are unlocked. However, while not a single liter of fuel leaves the refineries, work has not completely ceased in the refineries. Fuel production continues, with on-site storage since reserves are available. Enough to get the supply machine back on the road quickly once the blockages are lifted.