The requisitioning of personnel in several refineries and depots seems to be bearing fruit. 21.9% of service stations in France are out of at least one fuel this Wednesday, against 30% on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Energy Transition. A figure communicated daily, since the start of this crisis ten days ago, by the government. But where does it come from?
Contacted, the entourage of the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, indicates that this share of so-called “in difficulty” stations comes from information that the points of sale are supposed to communicate every day on a dedicated portal. “The data is then exported and processed by the departments of the ministry in order to aggregate them by department and to obtain the percentage of stations in difficulty,” it says.
This information is also used to feed the database of the prix-carburants.gouv.fr site, on which any Internet user can find the prices per liter of diesel or unleaded gasoline and be informed if one of ‘eux is unavailable in this or that station. At least in theory. Indeed, as we have already explained, all the stations are far from respecting the rules and “raising” their prices daily. In Paris, for example, no price has been updated for at least four days in seven out of 29 stations. Less than half of the sites in the capital show prices updated to October 19 at 6 am.
DGCCRF controls
However, “any distributor carrying out a fuel retail activity” is supposed to communicate its prices and “any change in the selling price is also immediately displayed”, insists the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Repression. Fraud (DGCCRF), contacted by Le Parisien.
However, as we have seen, this obligation is far from being followed by all stations. “A poor update of the site may be due to oversights or involuntary failures or a real intention to mislead consumers,” says the DGCCRF. The latter can then intervene, “in order to ensure compliance with the provisions relating to consumer information”. In Paris, for example, controls are underway in six points of sale.
Another phenomenon not to be underestimated, the national figure hides strong regional disparities. During the first days of the crisis, “we very quickly found ourselves in a situation where the 12% at the national level meant nothing because the situation varied a lot according to the regions”, according to researcher Arnaud Mercier.
Hauts-de-France, the region most affected during the first days of the crisis, has now fallen significantly below the national value (16.6% versus precisely 21.9%). Conversely, the situation is still very tense in Île-de-France, with 33% of service stations out of at least one fuel.
So many reasons to remain cautious about the national percentage of service stations “in difficulty” communicated every day. Contacted, the Ministry of Energy Transition did not provide us with further details on its methodology.