Crude receipts at the French Mediterranean port of Fos-Lavera surged to their highest level in over six years in April, as a backlog of cargoes caused by refinery and port worker strikes finally discharged.
Receipts rose to 590,000 b/d in April from just 145,000 b/d in March, according to Argus tracking. March was the lowest for any month since the start of 2017, even lower than during the Covid-19 pandemic, after prolonged industrial action by refinery staff and dockers over pension reforms ground much of the French downstream sector to a halt, pushing the backlog of crude at Fos-Lavera to more than 12mn bl at its height.
Fos-Lavera serves four refineries — UK-Chinese Petroineos' 207,100 b/d Lavera, ExxonMobil's 133,000 b/d Fos, TotalEnergies' 109,300 b/d Feyzin and Varo's 68,000 b/d Cressier refinery in Switzerland. The cargo that waited the longest was a small parcel of around 180,000 bl of Italian heavy crude, on the Amber Bee, for Petroineos, which arrived at the port on 24 February but did not unload until 27 April.
The full backlog has yet to clear. A cargo of Doba crude from Chad on the Suezmax tanker Saturn Moon arrived for ExxonMobil on 14 April, but it only partially discharged and is still waiting at the port to unload the remainder. Another cargo of 1mn bl of Nigerian Usan, also for ExxonMobil, has been waiting since 18 April, suggesting storage at the Fos refinery may be full.
A worker at the port told Argus today there is "disappointment at not having been able to lead the rejection of the pension reform. The fight was not sufficiently broadened. Oil workers put in a lot of effort through the strike. But employees have not given up and remain motivated if the fight is to resume".
April's imports at Fos-Lavera consisted of 160,000 b/d of US WTI, 90,000 b/d of Nigerian crude, 80,000 b/d of Algerian Saharan Blend, 60,000 b/d of Libyan crude, 55,000 b/d of Caspian CPC Blend, 50,000 b/d of Angolan Olombendo, 40,000 b/d of Saudi Arabia's Arab Light, 30,000 b/d of Iraqi Basrah Medium, 20,000 b/d of Doba and 5,000 b/d of Italian crude.
Petroineos took 270,000 b/d of the April imports, ExxonMobil 110,000 b/d, Varo 75,000 b/d and TotalEnergies 130,000 b/d. Unsurprisingly, the pace of receipts are slowing down this month. Around 1mn bl of Libyan Mellitah and 500,000 bl of CPC Blend have discharged. Along with the Usan and Doba cargoes that are waiting to unload, 500,000 bl of Libyan Mellitah is on route, plus 500,000 bl of Saharan Blend, 550,000 bl of CPC Blend and 2.5mn bl of WTI. The latter includes around 1.8mn bl on the Sea Pearl very large crude carrier (VLCC), which is at the port. The VLCC may only unload part of its cargo at Fos-Lavera.
