“Difficulties on at least one type of fuel” at the pump are felt in 12% of service stations in France, according to Olivier Véran.
Source AFP
© JEAN-MARC BARRERE / Hans Lucas / SASTRE-Hans Lucas via AFP
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Pno general shortage, but more than one service station in ten is deprived of all or part of its fuel in France, in particular under the TotalEnergies brand, victim of the success of a discount at the pump and a strike in its refineries and fuel depots. Some 12% of stations in France are experiencing “difficulties with at least one type of fuel” at the pump, with varying situations depending on the region, that of Hauts-de-France being the most affected with around 30% of stations, a indicated Olivier Véran at the end of the Council of Ministers. TotalEnergies, contacted, did not confirm the number of its stations that lack gasoline.
But Agence France-Presse found that many stations, of various brands, were empty on Wednesday in the North and that several others were taken by storm. To “restore a normal situation as quickly as possible” in the North, “so-called “strategic” stocks were released today in order to restock service stations”, announced in the evening the prefect of Hauts-de-France, in a statement. The authorities have also asked the operators of certain northern stations “to set up priority access” for “medical transport”, doctors and nurses.
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The sale and purchase of fuel in jerrycans and drums has also been banned in the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Somme regions. According to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, the situation is particularly difficult in the areas around Arras and Béthune. In the center of Lille, several TotalEnergies stations were closed for lack of fuel and in an Esso station in the city center, an hour of waiting was necessary to get supplies. “We are coming from Amsterdam to go to Paris, we have been looking for petrol for 1h30, this is our fourth station”, explained Sofiane Ladjmi, who is traveling with her brother, worried about being “late for the Classes “.
“Tensions”, but no “shortage”, according to Véran
On the A1 motorway, a queue at a petrol station overflowed onto the motorway. The government spokesman challenged the term “shortage” of fuel, preferring to refer to “tensions” in the supply of some of them, and calling on motorists to avoid “the panic effect”. A little earlier in the day, the LR president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, was alarmed by the situation, in a letter to the government: “Drivers are encountering more and more difficulty in finding stations, sometimes even in territories very far from the depots”, he underlined, referring to “situations of shortage or long wait” in his region. “I call on the government to quickly remedy this situation so that essential public services, such as school and road transport, can circulate,” he wrote.
The problems are explained by a strike movement for wages within TotalEnergies, but also, according to the group, by “the fall in prices” in its stations a discount at the pump of 20 euro cents per liter which has resulted in “a significant influx”, since fuels are cheaper there. The group promised on Tuesday “to mobilize to resupply the network thanks to additional logistical means”. “There is no shortage of fuel because TotalEnergies has built up stocks and is currently importing regularly,” he said. While some TotalEnergies sites have stopped the movement, it was renewed on Wednesday in the Normandy refinery, near Le Havre, the largest in France, which alone accounts for 22% of refining in the country.
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The movement was also extended to the “bio-refinery” of La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône), and to the fuel depot of Flandres, near Dunkirk, “strongly mobilized”, according to Pedro Afonso, elected CGT at the refinery of Feyzin (Rhône), whose union is calling for a salary increase of 10% for the year 2022. In this refinery, he recognized that there were “stronger teams, weaker teams”, in terms mobilization, from one shift to another, but assured that the fuel shipment service was “100% strikers” on Wednesday morning. The strike also continues for wages in the two French refineries of the Esso-ExxonMobil group, in Seine-Maritime and in the Bouches-du-Rhône, according to Christophe Aubert, CGT coordinator of the group, who indicates that the two sites are “still to a total standstill”.