Fuel shipments partially resumed at several refineries on Friday. This is for example the case of that of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), according to Esso-ExxonMobil. There are “no more strikes at the Fos refinery on this morning’s shift”, with a “resumption of shipments since 6 a.m. today”, a spokeswoman for the oil group told AFP on Friday morning. . Fuel shipments had already resumed Thursday at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime).
The CGT, the majority union on the Fos-sur-Mer site, for its part denounced a “manipulation” on the part of management to encourage employees to return to work. “Our management lied to the morning team by telling them that a refinery close to ours had been shipping via pipeline since the middle of the week,” said Lionel Arbiol, CGT manager of the Esso-ExxonMobil site in Fos-sur. -Sea. “It’s a shameless lie and manipulation to influence the strike,” he insisted.
The movement continues at TotalEnergies
“The morning shift therefore let a few shipments pass, but they will be stopped as early as 1 p.m.,” he warned. The neighboring refineries of TotalEnergies in La Mède and Petroineos in Lavera, also located on the Etang de Berre, were still blocked on Friday.
“Nothing goes in, nothing comes out”, according to Fabien Cros, of the CGT La Mède, which counted “70 to 80% of strikers”. “It has been agreed to continue the strike at least until Thursday March 16 at 9 p.m.,” said Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, CGT delegate at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges (Loire-Atlantique). “There is an exasperation in the face of this indifference and this contempt”, he regretted in reference to the “silence” of the President of the Republic, which Philippe Martinez pointed out this morning.
The situation is improving at gas stations
At the Petroineos refinery, the blocking has already been voted until Monday morning, said Sébastien Varagnol, of the CGT. In service stations, regarding fuel stocks, the situation showed a slight improvement on Friday morning compared to Thursday, with 3.31% of some 10,000 French stations running out of petrol and/or diesel compared to the 1st March, against 4.8% the day before according to public data analyzed by AFP.
The most affected areas remained departments in western France, with 18.75% of stations affected in Indre-et-Loire, 18.03% in Orne and 16.33% in Indre and 16.07% in Mayenne, according to ski resort information available on the prix-carburants.gouv.fr website.