At the national level, 11.2% of service stations are short of at least one product, a figure down from Tuesday (15.5%). One in two service stations in Val-de-Marne lacked at least one type of fuel (gasoline and / or diesel) on Thursday morning. In Essonne, they were 42.3% in this case and in Paris 32.7%.
The situation is also tense in certain departments in the West, such as Loire-Atlantique, or in the South-East, such as Bouches-du-Rhône, where in both cases, more than 30% of stations are out of service. at least one product and more than 20% of the stations are even completely dry, according to government data.
Refineries on strike
Two out of six conventional refineries are currently operating in France. Those at a standstill may, however, ship their stocks intermittently, depending on the strikes.
Concerning Île-de-France, the two strategic Norman refineries for its supply stopped their production for several days, that of Esso-ExxonMobil in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) and the neighboring TotalEnergies site in Gonfreville- The Orcher, but their fuel stocks are full.
The Gonfreville refinery renewed its movement on Thursday for four days, said the CGT. The Port-Jérôme refinery had done the same the day before, until the next national day of mobilization on April 6, but the unions agreed to punctually release a “small volume” of fuel, Christophe Aubert told AFP. , CGT Esso-ExxonMobil delegate.
Unlocking Strategic Deposits
Some 43 million liters of fuel were thus shipped Thursday morning, according to management, thus giving the possibility to a million motorists to fill up. In the most affected regions, “that means more waiting at service stations”, admitted on Sud Radio the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher who mentioned “supply difficulties”.
Many refineries are still blocking their shipments: in addition to the Normandy refineries, that of TotalEnergies in Donges (Loire-Atlantique), or, further south, the PetroIneos refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône), but shipments are taking place sporadic at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery near Fos-sur-Mer. They have also resumed for a few days at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin (Rhône), as well as at the TotalEnergies fuel depot in Flanders, on Tuesday evening. The latter could also help ease the situation in Île-de-France, according to a union source.
When depots are blocked, not by strikers but by outside demonstrators, the authorities do not hesitate to “release the blockages”, and in the event of arrest by strikers, to carry out requisitions, recalled Agnès Pannier- Runach.
Latest operation, the release Wednesday evening by the gendarmes of the SFDM oil depot, located 2 km from the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges (Loire-Atlantique), where access to tank trucks had been stopped since Tuesday morning, before taking requisitions since Thursday 1 p.m., at the rate of “one person per shift”, indicated the prefecture of Loire-Atlantique. “Less than five” oil depots out of the 200 in France were blocked on Wednesday evening, according to Ufip, a union of oil companies.