Stations still run out of fuel in Ile-de-France

Nationally, 11.2% of service stations are missing at least one product, down from Tuesday’s 15.5%. Every second gas station in Val-de-Marne on Thursday morning was short of at least one type of fuel (gasoline and/or diesel). In Esson, in this case, they amounted to 42.3%, and in Paris – 32.7%.

The situation is also tense in some departments in the west, such as Loire-Atlantique, or in the south-east, such as Bouches-du-Rhone, where in both cases more than 30% of the stations are out of service. According to the government, at least one product and more than 20% of stations are even completely dry.

refinery on strike

Two of the six conventional refineries are currently operating in France. However, those who are stagnant may periodically ship their shares depending on the strikes.

As for the Île-de-France, two strategic refineries in Normandy stopped production for several days to supply it: the Esso-ExxonMobil plant in Port-Jerome-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) and the neighboring TotalEnergies plant in Gonfreville-Orcher, but their stocks full of fuel.

The Gonfreville refinery resumed operations on Thursday for four days, CGT said. The Port Jérôme refinery did the same the day before, before the next national mobilization day on April 6, but the unions agreed to punctually release a “small amount” of fuel, Christophe Auber, Esso-ExxonMobil’s CGT delegate, told AFP. .

Unlocking strategic deposits

Thus, according to management, about 43 million liters of fuel were shipped on Thursday morning, which made it possible to refuel a million motorists. In the hardest-hit regions, “it means more waiting at service stations,” Energy Transition Minister Agnès Panier-Runashe told Sud Radio, referring to “supply difficulties.”

Many refineries still block their deliveries: besides the refineries in Normandy, the TotalEnergies plant in Donge (Loire-Atlantique) or, further south, the PetroIneos refinery in Lavere (Bouches-du-Rhone), but deliveries are sporadic. at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery near Fos-sur-Mer. They also resumed for a few days at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feysin (Rhône) as well as the TotalEnergies fuel depot in Flanders on Tuesday evening. The latter could also help alleviate the situation in Île-de-France, according to a union source.

When warehouses are blocked not by strikers, but by outsiders, the authorities do not hesitate to “remove the rubble,” and in the event of an arrest by the strikers, requisitions are carried out, Agnes Pannier-Runach recalled.

The last operation, the release on Wednesday evening by gendarmes of the SFDM oil depot, located 2 km from the TotalEnergies refinery in Donge (Loire-Atlantique), where tanker trucks were stopped from Tuesday morning, until applications were accepted from Thursday 13:00. , at the rate of “one person per shift”, indicated the prefecture of the Loire-Atlantique. Fewer than five out of 200 oil depots in France were blocked on Wednesday evening, according to the oil companies union Ufip.