You have to look very closely at the figures to realize the improvement. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Energy Transition, 27.3% of service stations were still encountering supply difficulties this Saturday at 3 p.m., against 28.5% on Friday. The trend is uneven across the country, with 39.9% of stations out of at least one product in Île-de-France (37% yesterday), 22% in Hauts-de-France (25.3% yesterday ) and 36.4% in Centre-Val de Loire (42.2% yesterday).
The strike at TotalEnergies continued on Saturday in the refineries, for lack of agreement on wage increases with the CGT. On the side of Esso-ExxonMobil, where the strike was lifted, the return to a normal situation will take two to three weeks in the group’s two French refineries, according to management.
The mobilization had been renewed until Tuesday for the Normandy refinery located near Le Havre, the largest in France, and Wednesday for that of Donges (Loire-Atlantique). Punctual deliveries of fuel were however able to be made from Donges. “We opened these taps to relax the atmosphere. The objective is not to divide the French, to create tensions, the objective is now to bring the French together around the same demand”, indicated Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, CGT TotalEnergies secretary.
“Very targeted requisitions in Dunkirk”
“Our challenge is the depots” where the fuel is stored, underlined the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher on BFMTV. “There are very targeted requisitions in Dunkirk, not for each team, depending on the needs and our ability to get fuel out of this depot,” she said.
“In a few days, we went from 50% to 22% (stations in difficulty) in Hauts-de-France so we can improve the situation in service stations without necessarily having a full and complete restart of refineries”, observed Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“Between the strategic stocks, Belgium and the arrival by boat, today we have supplies that are higher than the normal usual consumption in our country”, indicated the Minister, noting an “abnormally high consumption” due to full of precautions.
Matignon had indicated Friday evening that a “return to normal for motorists was expected in the coming week” but Agnès Pannier-Runacher was more cautious, saying that an “improvement” could take “a few days” but that a return to “perfectly normal” may take longer.