According to an industry union, diesel and petrol stations in France are running out of fuel as a refinery strike takes its toll.
According to the GCT union, train stations around Le Havre and Lyon are affected.
France was already struggling with a shortage of refined products, with Russia’s exports to Europe falling in recent months. But then strikes at French refineries first shut down half of the country’s refining capacity in hopes of settling a wage dispute.
The strike, which shut down Total’s 240,000 bpd refinery in Gonfreville and some at Exxon, among others, was expected to end on Thursday.
But reports came in on Friday that strikes disrupted Total’s refining and supply of oil products for a fourth day. Total outages in the refining sector in France now account for 60% of the country’s total refining capacity, Portal calculations show.
Earlier this week, Total said it was preparing to maintain all of its service stations during the strike, while Exxon limited the amount of refined raw product it sent to its customers in France. Exxon also said at the time that it had set up a supply response team to continue shipping product from “unaffected sources.”
France’s total refining capacity is around 1.4 million bpd – the fourth highest in Europe.
TotalEnergies announced on Friday that there was no impending fuel shortage as a result of the strikes, as the company had built up its inventories and was importing.
“There is no need to rush to the gas station (for gas),” TotalEnergies said on Friday. Despite those assurances, Portal also reported on Friday that France’s biggest sugar maker, Tereos, said it had to cut production at some of its factories somewhat after Total told it it would be unable to supply it with diesel until the end of the week .
The CGT union said the strikes could possibly last until Friday.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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